Rose's Cradle
by JdkLeBleau728
Summary: Eh? Salem? Let Ozpin deal with her, yeah... Now what? Grimm? Just let those professionals deal with them... What do you mean we could end the war right now and bring peace to everyone? Dust damn it! I just want to sleep! Let me sleep! A story of a girl who realizes she's practically a Mary Sue and seriously just want to sleep through everything!
1. Chapter 1

Hello there! For those who have clicked this story, just give it a try, yeah? I know there are many over powered OC stories out there, this is one of those stories as well, but let's try it first before turning away, yes? The plot has been in my system for quite a while and I just need to get it out. This is one of those reincarnation stories but I promise you this won't be a crack fic and the plot won't be shallow either. So, at least give it a try if you don't have anything else to read!

Disclaimer: RWBY is not mine, only my OCs are.

* * *

Chapter 1: Waking Up | Dreaming or Reality

"Oh dust, no… Aria! NO!"

A pained scream forced her bright red eyes to shot opened with a start. The first thing she had noticed was neither the crushing weight nor the helpless look from above her. It was these beautiful eyes the color of honey with specks of gold that she had committed to her memory as the light inside started to dim.

It happened again, it had happened again.

Staring back into those tearful eyes that she had become accustomed to in the past three days, she bit back a sob from escaping the confine of her throat. Even with dirt and filth marring her face, nothing could hide her gentle features as the corner of her mouth slowly curved into a relieved smile.

She wanted to cry…

Oh, she wanted to cry so much, but she can't.

She couldn't.

"I'm so glad you're safe, my little rose…"

That shaky smile had burnt itself onto the back of her eyelids as many more screams drowned out the quiet whisper from those bloodied lips. The one she had grown to care in the past three days coerced her trembling arms into pushing herself up. However, to no avail, a crushing weight fell down upon her, burying her weak form under the corpse of the one she loved so much despite the short time they had spent together as a bodyguard and her ward.

"Aaea…"

She wished to call her name out properly just like how this person had wanted her to do, but she could not even cry out. She wanted to return all those smothering embraces she had ignored with one of her own, but she was unable to even move. She begged and prayed, to whatever entity that was out there and watching, just even a minute or even a second, she wanted to cry for her so bad her heart ached.

Why did this have to happen?

Why her? Why them?

Why…?

"Kid! Get up, we need to get out of here!"

She could finally breathe once again when the weight of the dead body was off her. However, her moment of freedom was short lived as she was ripped off the ground by the owner of this firm grip on her right wrist. For a moment there, she was unable to stop herself from crying out the name that had been introduced to her tongue. Kicking and screaming, she pulled against the strength of the firm hand she had been accustomed to no different from the one on the floor back there.

Then, the next moment she blinked, instead of the corpse of one Ariana Esther, she was greeted with a pained look from a young woman with eyes the same color as her own. Looking around with panic gripping her heart tightly, she realized that they were nowhere near the clearing they had been in a mere second ago.

She was brought out of her own thought as she flinched against the warm embrace, not that different from the one before but not altogether the same. It was gentle, but not as caring as it was firm. Pulling away from the hug, her trembling hand came up and wiped the blood off her big sister's face.

"Wiwidd… hwurt?"

"'Tis but a scratch," she gritted out. "Heh, always want to say that."

"Wiwidd…"

Her whimper was stopped as she came face to face with the owner of the name that she couldn't address properly. She found it fascinating, how Lilith's eyes would turn golden whenever she used her Semblance to travel from place to place in her ghastly form. In fact, she could still see a wisp of smoke blurring her worried features as they had just stepped out of intangible state a mere second ago.

"They did this to you… Those monsters, they'd better be burning in hell or else I will roast them all myself, dust damn it!"

She was pulled closer to Lilith as those strong eyes roamed across her bloodied and battered body, inspecting her shaking frame for any bruises and cuts she may have received along the way. She was positive that it was neither illusion nor tricks of light when she saw Lilith's red eyes turned demonic, especially at the sight of the gaping hole in her punctured tongue.

"As much as I want to kill them all with my bare hands, I doubt we are in any position to double back with that blasted sniper on our tails… shit!" That curse word came out almost like a pained grunt as gold flickered throughout her vision before something collapsed. Her red eyes were immediately drawn to Lilith's bleeding right hand, the same hand that had deflected a bullet shot from an unknown source…

No, not unknown…

She knew who had shot at them.

She knew who had orchestrated the stampede that destroyed the lab she was in, the one who had issued kill on sight order on her family, and the one who had subjected her to that inhumane experiment.

 **"ARTHUR WATTS!"**

Lilith's thunderous roar made her flinch in surprise, both at the volume and the emotion hidden beneath the pain. It was then that another gunshot had nearly deafened her ears, the same gunshot that echoed from within the woods as Lilith's head jerked to one side. The bullet had gone straight through the blonde's temple without any interruption, burrowing itself into the ground with sizzling smoke and leaving a trail of blood down the side of her face.

It had just nicked a millimeter of the flesh beneath her skin before continuing onward as her body became intangible. It was such an unfair Semblance to anyone else, but it was one last hope for her who couldn't do anything as Lilith struggled to even breathe. It was one last straw she was willing to cling onto as she begged and prayed that the last of her little family survived this ordeal.

And right now, she was alive, she was still alive…

"Wiwidd… Wiwidd…"

Lilith Orabelle opened her eyes and chuckled at what was supposed to be her own name, and her eyes softened greatly as she realized what was before her. Lips trembling weakly, eyes clenching shut, she then gave her a forced smile as she mouthed something in silence. It was hard to read with all the blood, but…

'I'm sorry,' was not something she had been prepared for.

The mild nausea she had been associating with how Lilith phased in and out of corporeal state attacked her once again, and this time it was so strong that she had to close her eyes instinctively. The next instance she opened her eyes however, was the instance that she had to burn yet another scene straight from nightmare into her memory. She lost all her strength, any will to fight, as those eyes became dull and lifeless as another deafening roar echoed through the woods.

All it took for her to realize something different was two seconds flat. The sound of gunshot was not as loud nor was it as far, in fact, it seemed to even be in the vicinity. It was then that another bullet was fired, this time it phased through where her head was supposed to be and hit the corpse before her in the gut.

She felt that nauseous feeling again.

It was Lilith's power…

How?

"What a magnificent Semblance each of them had, what a waste. Truly, it was such a waste to kill them all… Ariana Esther and her ability to shape and reinforce silver at will, with that kind of intricate control, she could go far. Now, the ability to manipulate the tangibility of the thing she had touched? Miss Orabelle right here had a bright future ahead of her. Had the two of them not defended you, they will surely become someone great. But alas, what a waste…"

An unfamiliar voice forced her to whirl back with a loud crack from her thin neck. What greeted her as she adjusted her eyes to the sun shining down on them was a sight of a man, a certain man with a ridiculous mustache.

She knew this person.

Not from this life, but she knew him nevertheless.

Arthur Watts.

The transition from her blood boiling and turning cold in mere second was not the most pleasant, but then everything was scalding hot as she felt the blood of her family burned on her healing skin. The blood of Oliver Greene, Yuri Farran, Squall Marlowe, Violet Hunt, Ariana Esther, and Lilith Orabelle. They all burned because of this man, all because of a pet project the Queen had tasked him with…

It was all because she had been born…

"Three teams of Huntsmen and Huntresses in training, the best of the best from the Academies across the continents, along with four other professional and accomplished Huntsmen… all wasted. A failure like you shouldn't have woken up at all, however, my Queen should still be happy with these results."

The man's green eyes bore down into her smoldering reds before they moved away, forcing her to follow. Then, it was as if time had come to a stand-still as he pulled out something she had become quite familiar with, considering they were the things she had had a chance of holding with her small hands.

They were a pair of heavily customized revolver used by the leader of the team that sheltered her. Squall Marlowe had this passive kind of Semblance that made him the best marksman of the team. Adding to the fact that he once had a good head on his shoulder before it was blown clean off, it was said that he could sniped a target from two klicks away even with how the gun was supposed to be inaccurate at longer range. Considering that the guns had enough firepower to be confused with anti-material rifle, it was not farfetched to be called hand cannon.

It was strong enough to blow up the top half of an Ursa, after all.

The one in the man's left hand was a silver revolver handgun with a black accent. It was customized by Squall Marlowe himself to dealt high impact damage with a low rate of fire and was fitted with a design that seemed to be more appropriate for a close ranged fight. With jagged blade lining under the barrel to catch any other bladed weapon and a small talon-like hook under the handle, it was named Violence. Fitting for a gun with a ridiculously high Grimm kill count, if what the young man had boasted himself held any hint of truth.

Then there was its evil twin, Slumber. This one had a more royal design comparing to its counterpart with black coloring and golden accent. The reason why it was called as such was because its concentrate firepower and controlled area of effect that was more appropriate for a longer ranged firefight. It could be said that this one was akin to a mini sniper rifle with how it worked. The name Slumber came from the fact that this gun was mainly used to deal with human enemy, considering that unlike Grimm, human only needed a single clean shot to kill.

To see these beauties in the hands of an enemy like this…

"Squall Marlowe, the Leader of Team SLVE (Silver) of Haven Academy. He was quite a find for Headmaster Lionheart of Haven, not only because of his leading skill and his flawless combat capability. It was his marksmanship and his Semblance that almost make me feel remorseful of killing him. His ability to calculate bullet paths in the middle of battle was one thing, his Semblance however… The ability to accelerate moving objects was one of a kind, Miss Rose."

Squall's Semblance didn't amount to much for her when he was dead, shot in the head by a sniper of higher caliber whose bullets also killed two of his other teammate right before her eyes. If it was Arthur Watts before her then the sniper must have been either Hazel Rainart or Cinder Fall herself, but considering that the man before her still looked quite young, younger than what she had remembered, it should be the former instead of the latter.

Wait, did he just…?

"Wose?"

"Rose, Briar Rose, since we had used the DNA sample of the Silver Eyed Warrior herself to create you, why don't we give you the same surname? As for the name, it was quite fitting considering that unlike other test subjects, you took your sweet time waking up in those preservation tanks. Sleeping Beauty, indeed."

So that was why Ariana kept calling her little rose…

"It was a pity you didn't have silver eyes; my Queen would have been ecstatic if you did. Keeping the bane of Grimm itself right beside the Queen of Grimm, I could imagine quite a long list of how you could be useful to us. But alas, your eyes are red. All I could blame is heredity, I assume."

She could only watch numbly as Arthur Watts checked the cylinder of Slumber for bullets before taking all of them out, replacing six with one and spinning it before clicking it back in place. And in the next moment, out of all the possibility of what could have happened, he threw the hand cannon he had just took bullets out down onto the ground before her. It was as if he was testing her…

With Violence hanging limply at his right, he stared down onto her.

"Out of all the test subjects of this project," he started as if monologued. "You are our best chance at completing this project with both physic and auric capabilities at the top. However, you showed no sign of manifesting your Semblance no matter what we had done to you. While the others did, they died because their bodies could not handle the artificial soul we have engineered to suit our needs. It was a waste that I must kill you, so I will give you a test. The possibility is one out of six, if you could kill me, you will live. On the other hand, if you couldn't…"

He left the fact hanging in the air with a shrug and waited for her to crawl over and pick the gun up. Her body was clearly underdeveloped, her tongue and throat having no ability to help her talk properly was an apparent fact of her liability. When she held Violence and Slumber back then, she was in Squall's lap and he was guiding her hands with gentle care. There was no way she would be able to hold the gun, less so aiming properly. Yet, she still tried it all the same.

She could change things with this, she told herself quietly in her mind. If she could kill this man right now then Salem will have one less pawn, it would be easier for the good guys like that. If she kept telling herself that, then she might have believed it one day when she lived to see the light of tomorrow.

It was heavy, the gun in her trembling hands, the weight of those who had died protecting her, the weight of those whose lives lost because of this experiment. The weight on her shoulder was making her hands shaking like a leaf, causing her aim to falter as she tried her damnedest to line the sight with his face.

She pulled the trigger.

Instead of a deafening noise she had become familiar with as she watched Squall fending off Grimm after Grimm, the only thing that came out from the contraption in her hands was a quiet click. One out of six, it was just one out of six and yet…!

She pulled the trigger again.

Then again, again, again, again, and again…

It was supposed to be one out of six, and yet why did…

BANG!

One moment she was kneeling on the ground with a familiar hand cannon in her weak grip, aiming to shoot and kill the man standing in front of her with a cold smirk. Then, in the next moment, she was already on the ground, missing the left half of her torso to the smoking barrel of Violence which was aimed at her.

"Aa…gh..aarg…kh," was all she could croak out at this point. It was then drowned under the man's hysteric laugh as he hunched over with his free hand covering his face. He was cackling with a series of high pitched laugh that would make even Tyrian Callows blush in shame, he was laughing at the confused little girl on the ground, drowning in her own blood as she struggled to breathe.

"The chance was one out of six, one out of six that you would find an empty shell that I have replaced the fire dust bullet that I've shot you with. Do you really think that once you've killed me, you would be able to survive from the sniper that have ended your little troupe of bodyguards? Ha! Hahahaha…!"

It didn't hurt. It was supposed to be so painful that she wanted to scream her lungs out, but she couldn't feel anything below her neck. It was a blessing in disguise that she was unable to feel any pain from having a huge chunk of her torso blown off by a miniature cannon. The fire dust didn't help, it didn't cauterize her wound at all considering that it was too big. She was bleeding out…

No, she was drowning in her own blood.

There he was, leaning in her face while spouting whatever the hell he wanted. The fact that she was not in her right mind to listen and everything in her head was ringing madly seemed to elude him as he kept going on and on about his evil plan.

It took the man a short while before he noticed that the girl's red eyes had already glazed over, and her ragged breathing had come to a stop. Everything around her gradually became muted and dull as her eyes finally lost all the light they once held. All the senses that she had taken for grant left her one by once, starting from her numbed touch, then the taste of iron in her mouth, the harrowing sounds all around her, the scent of dirt and blood, and then darkness…

Death didn't seem as scary the second time around.

The darkness, the nothingness, the silence…

It made her mind wander.

* * *

Blinking her eyes open, she was greeted with a familiar ceiling she had been staring for the past two weeks. Her half-lidded eyes wandered to the side, taking in the fact that it was already half past one, and simply surrendered against the combined effort of cold air and warm comforter. It was not even fully summer yet, and she had already felt fatigued enough to just stay in bed the whole day.

The nightmare – her past – didn't help much to motivate her into moving away from this comfort either. Snuggling closer to her hug pillow, she let her mind continue to wander as she thought back to what had entailed in the dream.

It was the usual.

Reliving everything from the moment she first met Ariana to the point where she drowned in her own blood, such was what her nightmare had entailed. It was the same, every dialogue between them, every smile and every hug, it was all the same as what happened seven years ago. She would wake up inside a preservation tank full of oxygenated chemical, she would look at that small palm pressing up against the glass, then she would stare into those honey colored irises and realize…

She would realize that this was but another dream.

Waking up from one dream into another, or so she had thought. It was an untimely heatstroke that had turned into something much worse that woke her up from that dream into this one of bloody evolution. With fifteen years of memories full of sorrow and a body not even a year old, trusting was not something she associated herself with, at least until she decided to open up to them…

Even when it was already too late.

She was weak since her birth a lifetime ago with a severe heart condition that had her strapped to hospital bed, draining her parents of their fortune. While it was true that their love for their only daughter was unconditional, she still felt like she didn't deserve even an ounce of their affection. More so when she had done nothing but troubling them since her birth, like a fruitless investment she had become.

But when she lived out her childhood in hospital, it was inevitable that she would start to wonder of the possibilities outside of those four white walls that was her world. How would her life become if she was healthy? Will she be able to enjoy delicious food? Will she be able to enjoy every little thing that come into her life?

She wondered…

Wanting to know about the life outside the hospital, she started to read the stories coming from the point of view of others. It started out with a simple book her mother had brought her one day after she had asked for something to while her time away. She had already forgot about its title, but she knew it by heart that she enjoyed it nonetheless. Perhaps it was that enjoyment that drove her to seek more stories in any kind and form possible, whether it was just a gossip around the hotel, a funny story from her doctor, a sappy drama from her nurse, or even a life experience from the elderlies who came in for checkup.

She loved… She was addicted to that feeling.

When there were no more stories for her from the people in her life, she started to find more enjoyment out of something else when no one had times to indulge her. Starting with literature, she went from fact to fiction, and continued onto something else like television drama and cartoon. It was the best time of her life, sitting around in the children ward, watching the show and playing with the kids.

Not long after that, she found something even more fascinating.

Anime became something that kept her afloat.

She loved how artists breathed life into their drawings, how voice actors and actresses gave those characters personality, and how they all interacted and created all kind of stories. From rather immature stuffs through teenage ones to the ones with heavy and thick plotline, she loved all of them.

It was something that painted this monotonous life of her more colorful. She was not at the point of carving human contact, but she still enjoyed these interaction between characters and between people all the same.

That, it seemed to be a part of her soul.

It was something that made her tick, something that seem to be the cause of her life in that hellish experiment carrying out by the man serving the Queen of Grimm. She had woken up as a designed child, a genetically modified lifeform with an artificial soul engineered to suit varying purposes, and was subjected to many inhumane experiment at the hands of mad scientists. It was a living hell for her instead of reincarnation, the reason why still escaped her to this date.

Had she not woken up as Briar Rose, this wouldn't have happened.

Had she not shown Ariana and her friends in Team SLVE of what she could do while hiding it from those wicked researchers, the outcome wouldn't have been like this. All those lives lost because of her selfish desire to become free, it still weighed down upon her shoulders like a wide range of mountains.

She hid her Semblance from the one who had created her, she hid the only thing they wanted the most from them.

Officially, the purpose of that research was to create a perfect soldier to fight against Grimm instead of risking lives. The experiment regarding genetically engineered lifeform was practically frowned upon. It was the reason why all of this was kept out of public eyes with the ones in the know being quite high in the hierarchy of each Kingdoms. The peace of mankind and the future of the next generation, those were the bullshits they were going with in the research facility situated in a tundra region near the edge of Atlas.

Well, at least on the paper.

With how they had gathered DNA samples from many of accomplished and well-known Huntsmen and Huntresses as well as their family, it was already fishy enough that some darker things could be carried out unnoticed. If messing with DNA sequences was already bad enough, soul engineering couldn't be any better.

The true purpose of the one in control of this facility, Arthur Watts, was to create another tool for the Queen of Grimm herself. What kind of tool, one would ask, and the answer would be the kind of tool that could take control of Human and Faunus without any discrimination. Like how a Geist could possess inanimate object, the end goal of that research was something much worse.

She could reanimate corpse.

Not only that, if the memories of vast sky when that little bird came back to life in her hands could mean anything, it meant that no one will be taking any secret with them to their graves any time soon. Had Watts known that the experiment was a success, a single drop of poison in that mug of coffee and Ozpin will be no more.

That guy might as well be immortal last she knew, but…

Eh, there's always a possibility.

Squall had called it Gravedigger, Lilith also came up with a classy Marionette, and then there was the sweet Ariana who preferred the term Puppeteer for her lovely little rose. At least, that was until Violet who was Team SLVE's resident Aura expert noticed something odd before trying and actually unlocked her Aura.

Her Aura…

What was that book Blake read again?

No! Not Ninjas of Love!

The Man with Two Souls…

She had already come to term with how her desire to enjoy the story behind every little thing in her life was given such twist and became something so dark. So, imagine when she felt another source of warmth within her core, she cried for the first time in this world of Remnant out of relief.

Said relief was short-lived, however.

Because at the break of the new day, all the Huntsmen and Huntresses tasked with the security of the research facility finally saw some action. Originally, their job was to guard a supply convoy, but they were held back due to the increasing Grimm activity in the area. It was on their last they before the military would arrive and take over when a certain Grimm practically erupted amidst the woods.

A Grimm Hydra, the same one as shown in the manga rendition she had read not too long ago in her last life, and it did not come alone. Thousands of Grimms destroyed two dust quarries and few dozens of frontier settlements on that day, and it was because one man deemed everything there was a waste of time. She had no idea of the number of casualties caused by the stampede, let alone bandit and Grimm problems that will come after.

She knew however…

That it was all Watts's fault.

"Was it bad dream again?"

Frowning at an extra weight on the mattress, she unwillingly opened her eyes and looked back over her shoulder. Blinking owlishly at the intruder to her room, she let her sleep induced brain process the scene a little bit before coming to a conclusion. Reaching out and tugging on his sleeve, she invited him into the bed with her like no sane woman would have done.

"Can I say no?" He laughed dryly.

"You can't," was all she allowed.

It didn't take long for her to ditch the hug pillow and snuggled into something much warmer. He smelled like a combination of wood and herbs, something that oddly calm her down after that bout of nightmare almost every time it happened. He was always there, like a knight in shining armor for the princess atop the tower.

"Where is Aria?"

"Out on a grocery run in the town with Lilith, it's already been quite a while thought. I'm sure they will be back soon… What's wrong?"

It was pitiful, talking to herself like this. She mumbled quietly to herself before looking back up to the one she had been using as a hug pillow, or rather him using her as one considering that she was now in his embrace. In fright, she almost saw a part of his head missing as her red eyes met his silvery blues. It made her heart sink as she thought back to what had happened in her dream – her nightmare.

"Your body is hard, it's uncomfortable."

"Ehh? But you dragged me in here?"

She chuckled weakly at his whining before burying her face down into the crook of his neck, breathing in that herbaceous fragrance like a starving animal. As her left hand sneaked up his torso, she remembered how one Ursa Major had ripped him to shreds. Tracing her sweaty palm against his slightly cold cheek, she remembered how his smile was encased in eternity as the light in his eyes faded. Then she grinned weakly as she combed through his messy hair lazily, remembering how a single bullet had ended it all. The dream she saw, it was almost too real.

"You died," she started with a shaky mumble. "You put yourself between me and a huge Ursa, and it tore through you like your Aura was nothing but a wet tissue. You grinned at me, telling me how glad you were that I was safe and sound. Then, then it happened. A single bullet through your head and your smile was cold, plastered there on your bloodied face forever. It was scary…"

Her fingers stopped as she finally found it.

"You do know that it's not a dream, yes?"

A wry smile escaped her trembling lips as she traced her fingertips along the scar hidden amidst his dark messy hair. The evidence was there, mixing imagination and memory into a dreadful concoction called nightmare. She could only whimper pitifully into his neck as he enclosed her small frame into a tight embrace, as if to protect her from anything harmful that was to come.

"You died because of me," she muttered.

"I died for you," he corrected. "I died so that you could live on for all of us. We live on in your dream, see? I'm here with you, Briar. Aria and Lilith are out right now but they will be back soon. As for Violet, hmm, we can only hope that she doesn't mess up with Atlas. Oliver will be back from Mistral with Yuri in a week as well, I just hope they bring something for us as a souvenir."

"But you all are just a part of my Semblance, I brought you all back from dead. I'm practically talking to myself right now…" There was a twitch in his hand as he stopped rubbing circles across her back. She knew that it was true, she was talking to a ghost of her family, an illusion her mind had conjured.

It was all just a dream.

"We live on within you, no? I am not the Squall Marlowe you once knew, but I am still Squall Marlowe nonetheless. I am a ghost, but I am also your family, yes."

She flinched slightly as he abruptly stood up with her still in his embrace. Her legs automatically wrapped themselves around his waist as he walked out of her room and down stair to the first floor, all the while humming softly a tune he had taught her back then when he was still her Squall.

He was still her big brother, but…

She tightened her hold on him as she snuggled close, buried her face into the crook of his neck again like she would a soft pillow. Letting the warmth of his body enveloped her small frame like a thick comforter in winter, she let out a content sigh as she pondered the meaning of her existence.

A sick girl with a short life who had been freed of her shackle only to be pulled into another torture. However, instead of hellfire, brimstone, and all that jazz, she had woken up into a world full of conflict and constant war, into this World of Remnant.

She had woken up with a power like no any others.

It was more of a curse, in her opinion.

Semblance was said to be the manifestation of one's innate and personal power as an ability unique to each individual. It was also noted as representing an aspect of their character as well. She couldn't look at herself in the mirror for a while, thinking that Gravedigger was all she could have.

At least until her own Semblance manifested two years ago…

She called it Lucid Dream.

In an enclosed space, she could affect anything with her thought.

While Gravedigger was a part of her that she had learned to appreciate, it was still a morbid and unnatural Semblance that let her breathe life back into the husks of her family. She had to rip her own soul to pieces and used those little parts to hold their escaping Essence back inside the container.

But looking at Squall right now, she didn't see herself in his eyes.

Her real Semblance, Lucid Dream, it had changed how Gravedigger worked. When she said she could affect anything with her thought, she really meant anything. Whether it was the law of physics or the law of nature, she could bend reality to her will once she was in an enclosed space. They did die when she opened the door, but she had taken care of it with Gravedigger's ability to mess with soul and body.

That was how she dreamt them all back to life, using a piece of her own soul and the Essence of theirs.

He was not Squall the leader of Team SLVE, but he was still her big brother nonetheless. While she did not know him prior to their meeting in that facility, she used whatever memories Gravedigger had given her to breathe life back into him.

It was still her inside, but it was also him.

That was why he said that they had lived on within her.

It took her some time to finally see them as who they were and not her posting as the dead. Her big brothers and big sisters were there with her when she needed them the most, they had been with her all along even when she thought she had lost them. They were there alongside her with every step she had taken.

Now they were not the dolls she had made them out to be…

No, not anymore.

Looking aside at the man whose warmth she reveled in, she didn't see herself in him. It was just like he had said before, he was not the Squall Marlowe she once knew, not the older brother she never knew she wanted. He was still Squall Marlowe though, just because he had died once didn't mean that his will couldn't live on. Her soul and his essence had merged together into something else, into something – someone – that she wanted to see.

He was not the leader of Team SLVE, not anymore.

He was her brother, Squall Marlowe.

"You're staring at me," he muttered with a smile. "Did I do something wrong? Or perhaps, do you want to get down? I know how much you want to just stay happy in your bed forever, but you have a reason to be here, no?"

His question at the end cleared her mind instantly as she perked up and snapped back so hard that she heard a pop from her neck in tandem with a series of knocks on the door. She didn't even have enough time to look back at Squall as he had already reached for the doorknob. All she could do was to wait with a bated breath as her older brother pushed the door open, revealing the form of their visitors.

What came to her mind when she finally took in the appearance of their guest was not the blonde kid hiding herself inside the white cloak, and surely not the toddler in the woman's arms. The sweet scent from the basket hanging from the woman's arm did make her become conscious of her empty stomach, but that was it.

It was those silver eyes…

"Hello, neighbors! Welcome to Patch!"

It was those bright and beautiful silver eyes…

* * *

Author's Note

And there you have it! First chapter of what has been in my mind for quite a while. If you read up until this point then it would be great if you could leave a review or follow/favorite this story of mine! Thank you!


	2. Chapter 2

Another Hello! It's been quite a while since I published the first chapter, and to think that a one chapter story actually got some favorites and followers! Whew, that's why I write up a continuation of the earlier chapter! I'm sure from the name of our protagonist and a tidbit of her personality from the summary, you all knew that she's pretty lazy for someone so powerful. I just hoped that you didn't find it boring or redundant reading this kind of story. Anyway, just read this if you have nothing else to read!

Disclaimer: RWBY is not mine. I only own my OCs.

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Chapter 2: Roses | Alone or Together

It was five measly minutes into the lighthearted conversation between Summer Rose and Squall Marlowe when her brother suddenly dropped the bomb. Mentioning the Silver Eyed Warrior in front of one was probably not the best idea, but the fact that he spoke of the Maidens right after was far worse. He had only sent a glance her way when Summer knelt before her children and told them to behave. Right now, they were at the front porch, talking with this incredibly serious look on their face as if someone had threatened to blow up the kingdom.

Now, she was looking after the siblings as they were playing around with her plushies. One lucky teddy bears dressed in princely manner was in the hands of Ruby Rose, while its evil twin dressed in the manner that screamed villain was in the hands of her older step sister, Yang Xiao Long. They were re-enacting a tale of hero and villain, fighting with a princess at stake…

Said princess was none but yours truly, hugging a pillow with a paper crown adorning her head. It was funny how the siblings decided to take control of the situation as if they were the host themselves, entertaining her with a tale of famous knight in shining armor saving a damsel in distress.

Not that she was in a distress or anything, but the sight was heartwarming enough for her to simply observe and play her part. They were annoyingly cute, so cute to the point that when they called her their big sister, she practically melted.

They were already treating her as a part of their little family.

Oh, the irony…

"Princhess?"

She was brought out of her musings when a small voice called out to her behind a brown princely plushie. She craned her neck a little bit before locking eyes with the little rose, asking what was wrong silently with a quirked brow. However, instead of the answer, what she got was a squeal as the young girl launched herself at her.

"How didchu do it? How? Your brow! How!?"

"Uh, I just do?"

"Ehh!?"

While the scene of Yang trying to stop Ruby from crying was amusing enough she had to sneak a quiet chuckle to herself, it wouldn't bode well for her if Summer heard that she had made her daughter cry. Looking around the living room, her eyes finally settled on a balloon sword Lilith often used to beat Squall senseless. How a trained Huntsman got knocked out cold by a balloon sword still escaped her reasoning, but now, it should be enough to at least get their attention.

"Say, Ruby, was it?"

"Yeah…"

"Do you like Huntress?"

That got her not only Ruby but also Yang's attention as well. Seeing as she had already got them hooked on the topic, she smiled at them and signaled them to follow as she led them further into the house – to one of the rooms that children like them shouldn't be allowed into.

Not that she was a child, just saying…

"First thing first, there are no difference between Huntsmen and Huntresses aside from their gender. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, because if trained properly, we could be even stronger than those boys who say we have cooties…"

She gritted out bitterly as some memories surfaced. Despite being old enough mentally, she still had a childish side in her that wanted to go out and see the World of Remnant with her own eyes. She travelled with her family for about a year before settling down somewhere in Mistral to get a better grasp at the situation.

It was then that she experienced how cruel children can be.

"Yeah, those boys know nothing of haircare, you know!? Hey, my hair is beautiful, right? They're not a bundle of hay, right?"

She stopped before the door and smiled at the five years old Yang before nodding, admiring her beautiful blonde hair which was tied into two separate pigtails. Slightly wavy and seemingly hard to tame, they encircled her childish expression like a frame to a piece of art, bringing attention to Yang's bright lilac eyes without fail.

Branwen and Xiao Long, those genes did the girl good.

"Of course, they are not. Quite beautiful if I have to say, and I see we have a similar color scheme, hmm?" Picking the squealing Ruby up into her arms after opening the door, she gestured Yang to close it behind them as she went inside. The sense of accomplishment suddenly swelled in her chest as she almost lost a hold of the kid in her embrace. Had she not pick the girl up, heh…

"Are you a Huntress!?"

"No, of course not. I'm too young to be one, and I'm not really interested in being one either. Recognition and fame are some of the things that I loathe with passion, and those things come with being successful at Huntsmen and Huntresses career."

It was not that she didn't want to become one, she couldn't. It had already been seven years since she had woken up in this world and she had yet to age even a single day. She woke up looking like a ten years old little girl, twelve at best. Nearly a decade had passed, and she was still ten nonetheless, not even the passage of time could put an end to an undying monster she had become.

Never grow, never age, never die…

Maybe she could ask for an advice from Ozpin.

The way she had achieved immortality was because of Violet and Yuri.

First of all, Violet Hunt, the V of Team SLVE and the team Aura expert. She was a frontline fighter with a bit of masochistic tendency which led to her Semblance being the ability to take hits, and converged that kinetic energy into Aura. However, what saved her from death was the passive aspect of the Semblance which accelerated her Aura Regeneration to a ridiculous degree.

Then there was Yuri Farran, the F of Team SAFR (Saffron) from Shade Academy. She was a loving and caring fox Faunus with an auric flame that could both burn and heal as a Semblance. If she had to hazard a guess, Yuri was the most valuable asset for Shade Academy due to her Semblance's passive ability that could be dubbed as Hyper Regeneration.

The two abilities working in tandem had granted her an eternal youth and an unending life force. She gathered Aura with Violet's masochistic Semblance and Yuri's own prevented her from aging further than she naturally was.

The problem in this case was her nature.

She was created, not born.

THAT was her nature.

She tested it, not really an experiment but she had tested it nonetheless. One night when she was left alone to hold fort, she had decided that she had had enough and stole a replica of Slumber from Squall's Workshop and BANG! The next morning found her bawling her eyes out under Ariana's scrutiny as she scrubbed her blood and brain matter off the floor. She had never known until that morning that Ariana – a part of her soul – could be so scary when she wanted to.

Speaking of Slumber Replica, that was the same firearm that Ruby was reaching for until Yang pulled her away from the worktable back to the computer. She could still remember its steely roar and its furious blaze, the pain it had caused, the sorrow it had brought, and the eternal slumber it had denied her…

"You zoned out a little bit there, what's wrong?"

"Ugh, it was just a simple headache, and I really want to *yawn* go back to sleep soon. But let's put that aside for now and continue where we left off, shall we?"

Operating the computer terminal before them, she pulled up a file of recording and opened it for the kids to see. It might not be as grand as the tale of a knight fighting for some righteous reasons, but it should be enough for the children as young as them. It was a record of a friendly spar between Squall and Ariana in the woods just behind their log house, one that will surely blow these two away.

It was then that she felt a small tug somewhere in the back of her mind. It was a familiar sensation that came along with a serious headache whenever she felt her connection between her and her family become taut. Someone wanted her attention, and from how they were pulling, she realized that it was Squall.

She shook her head a little before tugging at the sleeve of Yang's t-shirt.

"Can you look after your sister for a bit?"

What she got as an answer was a simple nod as those lilac eyes were glued to the screen, leaving her blinking at the attention the fight between her older siblings had gotten. Surely the fight was not that impressive. Ariana could do some interesting things with her Semblance as well while Squall was simply devastating with his.

But she had seen what Lilith was able to do.

Her favorite big sister and big brother literally had no chance.

Closing the door quietly behind her, she let her bare feet dig into the soft carpet on the floor before making her way toward front porch. Squall was good at this thing called socializing and shouldn't have trouble dealing with Summer, why he needed her was something she couldn't fathom. Their connection was not severed by any means, and it brought up a question why he couldn't just ask her by using it?

Unless he needed her to be present, for something.

That something must not be good.

He was her favorite, but he was always up to no good as well.

Especially when it concerned her, no good would come out of whatever he had planned. There was this one time they went to a fairground together during Vytal Festival and he turned shooting galleries into target practice exercise. The amount of reward he pushed upon her small form would have buried her on the spot had Violet not shown up in time. Then there was Oliver as well…

Just why did the male members of her family want to see her suffer so much? Was it because they were male? Was it something related to the last pair of their chromosomes? Or was it just that they were so good with guns?

No, Yuri always tried to embarrass her as well.

It must be the gun.

She concluded and nodded sagely to herself as she came up to the front door. Turning the knob, she was greeted by a slightly humid air of Patch's early summer and regretted letting Squall drag her out of bed earlier. Not that she didn't want to talk to Summer Rose, but she knew the Huntress can wait, really.

Why can't they just talk inside?

"It's hot," she stared at her honorary brother flatly.

He laughed dryly.

"Well, it is Summer after all."

Was that a pun?

Her apathetic red eyes took on a dangerous glint for a second before a hint of interest broke through. As her eyes roamed across the white clad figure, she couldn't deny that it was quite hot outside today indeed. This person before her was beautiful in many ways, the smile she tried to maintain, those silver eyes sharp and steady, the collected posture, the calming presence…

"What a surprise," she uttered quietly. "You have silver eyes."

The Last Rose of Summer went rigid.

"What do you want, Squall? I did leave two kids in your workshop, so if you don't have anything to say then I will go back?" It was now his turn to stood up like a rod and sent her a pointed look before booking it back into the house, leaving her alone with a woman whose presence alone made her heart pound. Having connected mentally with many people had made their personalities bled into hers.

She had to wonder if someone had a thing for a hot older woman.

Looking back at the said older woman, she found her eyes roaming once again and stared straight into those silver eyes. If she had them, what would have become of her right now? Maybe she will never be able to experience Remnant? Maybe she will never know the taste of freedom? Maybe even having a family?

Speaking of family…

"What did you talk about?"

She felt her heartbeat quickened as those eyes fell upon her, and she was sure that whatever experiment done to create her, there was no Grimm involved. What she felt was not fear, not unconditionally like how those Grimms felt under those eyes.

It was a thrill, an excitement.

One wrong answer and her head might suddenly fell off her shoulders, considering that she didn't know what kind of conversation this person and her lovable brother was having until a moment ago. The fact that she felt slightly giddy by the possible outcome that might lead to a violent confrontation didn't help. She was sure that Violet's personality just bled into hers for a little bit right there.

"About you, apparently, I didn't catch your name?"

She looked on for a second before she smiled.

"Briar, my name is Briar Rose."

She stood back and let the name sank in quietly, going back to observing the older woman's shapely figure before looking down at her own. Seven years and not even a millimeter higher, she tried everything ranging from milk to surgery, and yet nothing happened during her stay on Remnant. Her dedication to grow up aside, the fact that the passive effect of the Semblances in her control recognized this as her natural spoke of something she would rather not hear. Maybe if she could find someone with a Semblance that could change her physical appearance…

No, using Gravedigger like that was a definite no.

"Where are your parents?"

That was quite insensitive for someone like her, she noted to herself as she looked at the direction of another ping in the back of her mind. There was a chance that this meeting might go wrong, and she might be a soggy red pile on the floor at the end of this conversation. However, she knew that even if the opponent was someone strong like Summer Rose, just one of her siblings alone would be enough to hammer the lesson in.

Lilith would have to get in the queue though…

Calling Ariana overprotective was understatement of the century.

"I don't know," she offered.

Summer blinked at her answer before she slowly leaned onto the wooden railing, adopting a thinking pose with her right hand rubbing her chin. The Huntress never let those sterling silver orbs wander elsewhere but at the young girl standing before her, inspecting every fiber of her being with intense curiosity.

"How about a name, I might know them."

Briar cocked her head a bit before shaking. She had no plan on making this a headache for Summer, especially when she was one of the few immediate family the Huntress could ever have at the moment. The lore of RWBY didn't speak much of Summer other than being a member and the leader of Team STRQ.

Summer Rose was a stranger to Briar Rose.

For now, at the very least.

"I'm sorry."

It was then that she felt warmth enveloped her and a faint smell of rose that she might not mind letting her indifferent façade slip. She was no stranger to hug and kiss, her six older brothers and sisters had made sure of it after her suicide attempt that one night. So, it was not awkward for her or Summer when she was pulled into a hug as the Huntress drowned her in this sweet, sweet scent.

"I had no idea that there was anyone left out there. I'm so sorry."

She had no idea what kind of conclusion she had come to, but the feeling of the hug was more than enough to glue her lips shut. Basking in the comfort of the others like this was something she had always experienced when the girls were around. Oliver and Squall often filled in the role, but it's not like this…

"You're crying."

She could feel the tears through her cloth.

It's fine for her to cry, but she didn't like seeing others do the same.

Her red eyes stared straight ahead at both of her hands that had yet return the shaking embrace of this sobbing woman. It was this abrupt development that caught her off guard, especially so when someone like her could do nothing but slowly bringing her arms close to entrap this person inside a hug of her own.

"Briar," was all she got before her eyes were full of silver. Those unshed tears only made them more beautiful. So entrancing that she forgot about her character and nuzzled back against the palm cupping her left cheek.

Whether it was this life or the one before, she had never truly known what a mother love felt like. While it was true that she did have parents in her past life, the truth that they needed to work to keep her alive was not lost on her. They were family. They loved her unconditionally. They really were, but for someone who was nothing but a burden to them, she felt as if she didn't deserve even an ounce of their love.

However, she wasn't alone in this life like she had found herself in inside the confine of a hospital room. She had her brothers and sisters beside her, but they were just that. Ariana and her devotion came close to be something like a mother figure for her with how much she cared, but she just wasn't.

It was this warmth she felt from Summer Rose.

This person really was a Super-Mom.

"You're a good mother."

"Eh, thank you?"

She brought her hands up to her chest, as close as she could possibly get to her aching heart. It pained her to see a frown etching upon Summer's face as she stepped away from the opened arms, but she couldn't steal her from Ruby and Yang. While they were family, they weren't that close yet.

"I don't know if it was pity or not, but I'm not hopeless, you know."

For someone who was not hopeless, she was far too familiar with suicidal thoughts than she would care to admit. The pain she had seen in their eyes when she woke up next morning after a bottle of sleeping pills was still a fresh memory. Someone had to be with her all the time for almost two months after that incident with Squall's gun only to make sure that she would not try something like that again.

Knowing what would come to her in the future with how she was created, she made a mistake and let her imagination run wild. It was a tragedy of long life that drove her into despair. With her Semblances, she was unable to see everyone around her as anything but a form of coping mechanism. She had dreamed them back to life after all, what was to say that it wasn't just her own subconsciousness talking? That she wasn't all alone for the entire time? And that everything wasn't just a dream?

She was hopeless, she was still hopeless even now.

"It's not that! I just… I don't really have anyone left aside from my husband, my daughters, and my team. The only real connection to my parents was my daughter until I saw you with your brother, so I just… I can't…"

Summer looked down onto her lap before allowing a quivering sigh through her lips. She was showing more and more of her weakness to a stranger than she had done with her teammates. The girl standing before her was a perfect match to a picture of her grandmother that her parents had once shown to her. The hair color, the skin complexion, the facial features, they were all the same.

Especially those eyes, those lustrous red eyes.

"You look just like my grandmother."

Her half-lidded eyes widened for a fraction before the detached look quickly returned. It was a quick transition, but not quick enough to escape trained eyes.

"Is… Was she beautiful?"

"She was," smiled the Huntress.

Letting a smug smile surfaced a bit with an accompanying triumphant sound, she fell back onto one of the rocking chairs as Summer showed her a tiny grin of her own. Surely, the Huntress got what she was trying to say.

"In case my brother didn't tell you, I'm actually twenty-two."

It's quite funny seeing someone do an actual double take like that, even more so when it's from the Summer Rose of Team STRQ. She allowed a few throaty chuckles to escape before sitting down on one of the rocking chairs on the porch.

"He told me that you have a weird Semblance… Is this a side effect?"

That was a cover story all of them had agreed to use whenever someone noticed that she didn't exactly act her age, especially when said someone went by the name of Qrow Branwen or Professor Ozpin. Since it's not technically a lie as it's half-truth, it'd be more believable when presented to those with good head on their shoulders. Not that she would stop milking it though, since it seemed children got so many leeway from her experience living on Remnant.

"Well, it's a bit over the top? Someone I know is a walking bad luck charm because of his Semblance so I'm not that surprised but… well, you wouldn't see something like this every day either. It's tough having that kind of Semblance, isn't it?"

Well, she did look at the mirror every morning, but that would be a bit too childish for the self-proclaimed twenty-two years old to answer with. Eyeing the form fitting outfit beneath Summer's cloak a little bit, she sniffed before looking away from one of the two blood relative she had on this world. Sure, she was at home, but for someone like the last Silver Eyed Warrior to walk around unarmed…

"It was, being treated as a kid got old really quick, but being able to charm those gullible 'adults' had gotten me out of troubles more than I can care to admit. For example, I always get some extra when I'm out shopping! Pretty neat, hmm?"

That last bit got a wry smile out of the Huntress. Summer shook her head at the girl's unnerving exterior before sitting down on the rocking chair next to her. Looking out into the woods, she narrowed her eyes slightly at how silent it had become. If she remembered correctly, her husband should have thinned down the Grimm population on Patch just yesterday. However, there was still a chance that he had forgotten with how his teaching job at Signal had taken quite a toll on him.

"I suppose we're somewhat related, huh?"

She stole a sidelong glance at Summer before humming in an agreement. With how her DNA sequence was cooked up, she was sure that she was related to many prominent figures in Remnant. Maybe if she dug hard enough into the files they had salvaged from whatever was left of the lab, she may have been related to the Arc as well as many more of the main casts. Was she a part Schnee though?

That's something to think about later…

"Your daughters, do you want them to become Huntresses? Little Ruby seemed fascinated with weaponry, and Blondie had this look in her eyes that screamed bad idea when she looked at a video of a spar between my siblings."

She heard a chuckle from Summer as she finished, and it was not long until an answer befitting of a Super Mom surprised her. It may not be appropriate with how small their age difference was, but the more time she had spent with Summer, the more her desire to see this woman as a mother figure she had never truly loved.

"It's up to them whatever they want to be in the future, I mean, that would be what I want if I'm in their position. If Ruby wants to be a weapon engineer, I wouldn't stop her. If Yang wants to become a model, I wouldn't stop her either. Not every kid needs to grow up to become a defender of mankind, it's our job as an adult to ensure their happiness and future that is to come."

She tilted her head to one side, slowly smiling.

"It is their lives, after all."

Their conversation ended just like that, and it was a comfortable silence that followed as they both rocked back and forth on the chairs. The heat of summertime was not something she found pleasant, but being able to relax in the shade with some company was not a bad idea for her either. It was at time like this that she wanted to crawl back inside and get that watermelon in the fridge out…

"Ngh," she grunted, at the tug from the direction of the town.

This was something out of her expectation, but it seemed like her beloved sisters had encountered a sizable horde of Grimms on their way back from grocery run. Considering what she had seen of their shopping list, it was expected that they would have some trouble dealing with all those pests.

They had their weapons with them, but with the number of things they had bought for the party they were going to have when Oliver and Yuri come back, it will be a tad bit too hard for them to come home unscathed. She could alert Squall of the incoming Grimms that were able to escape from her sisters, but since he was taking care of Ruby and Yang, she would rather deal with it herself.

It had been a long time she had exercised anyway…

She didn't hate violence as it was one of the simpler ways to deal with problem, but to exert violence meant that she needed to move her body. However, that wasn't the only reason why she didn't like fighting.

It was the limitation of her Semblance that made the experience unbearable for her. Gravedigger had no offence capability on its own, and that left Lucid Dream as her only mean of fighting against any form of threat coming her way. While its main limitation was the surrounding, only effective in closed environment and all that, she had mastered it to a degree that she could easily bypass that shortcoming.

She could influence the reality around her to a degree.

Four meters radius around her, to be precise.

That meant she needed to be up close and personal with her enemy, and with her small stature and unwillingness to exercise put into consideration, it was best that she stayed on the sideline and looked at how badass her family members could be. It was not unreasonable for her to find that line of thought agreeable, since most of the threat they had faced was not quite pleasant to her eyes, not one bit.

Grimms were scary, some was even disgusting…

Especially that Nuckelavee, a prime example of nightmare fuel.

Had anyone ever told Salem that?

Probably not, period.

If she had to quote what Violet had called her back when they had just met all those years ago, then it would be a Little Dreamer. For someone who lived in a lab for most of her short artificial life, she had a really wild imagination, or so they had said. She loved listening to whatever story they had to tell, and she expressed the desire to experience the things she had never known. The foods she had never tried, the views she had never seen, and the places she had never been, everything they had spoken of when they were right beside her, she had dreamt of them.

It had stopped being a dream, only after the ones she wanted to experience it all together unfortunately turned into one.

Looking back over her shoulder, she narrowed her eyes slightly at the frowning woman. The Huntress had been trained in the best academies on Remnant, under one of the best Huntsmen even. She had all the experience on the field to back everything up, but people like her had one glaring flaw that will be their downfall.

The way they chose to lead their lives.

The weight of the burden they had taken, the responsibility of the action they had chosen, and the guilt of what they had done and could not atone. Everything that they had taken upon themselves will bury them alive, it will crush them at every step, and will suffocate them at every waking moment.

"Say, Summer, to you… What does it take to be a Hero?"

The Huntress only quirked a brow at that.

"That question is…"

The same one that her brother had asked, she knew it even without the actual words from the Huntress's mouth. Lax and lazy he may have been, Squall was still the one and only leader of Team SLVE. His sense of value was something she had come to respect greatly from the moment they got to talk until now.

For him, hero must not be hypocrite.

If a hero helped others so willingly then that same hero must also accept other's help as well. There was neither rule nor law stating that being hero meant that that person must be alone and shoulder all the burden by themselves. Many stories she had read often featured an end unbefitting of a hero, a lonely end that made her feel a twinge of pain in her chest. She had thought of how Summer would die, and it left a bad taste in her mouth now that she finally got to know the Huntress.

Her emotion right now, it must have lured them in like a magnet.

There was another tug at the front of her mind before the black creatures broke through the tree line on the other side of the clearing. There were four Beowolves, bruised and battered from the fight they had run away from, running straight to her with their eyes glowing red like a pair of headlights on four speeding cars.

She heard a cry from Summer, but that was it.

It all ended when the four creatures of darkness came a step too close to her, with a jungle of thorny vines that erupted from the ground and through their bodies. It was almost with mechanical precision how the two-dimensional reddish black vines shot through all the vitals, suspending their twitching bodies up in the air before her narrowing eyes. It was like a messed-up piece of art she never wanted to see.

She snapped out of it when she heard a footstep behind her.

Reigning in the defense mechanism of her Semblances, she turned around and faced one worrying Summer Rose with a soft smile. There was this warmth glowing in her core as she registered the expression on the Huntress's face. Ariana often donned this kind of face when she did something reckless, but it never felt like this before. She felt like she really did something bad, something really, really bad.

"Does it hurt, thinking that you might lost me so soon?"

A hint of anger amidst the concern showing upon Summer's face didn't escape her, but it was gone just as fast as it had come. And the next moment was the second time she thought she might've suffocated once again in a forceful embrace from the Huntress.

"I'm not useless, and you're not alone, Summer."

She felt the arms around her froze.

"Whenever you're out doing your job as a Huntress, please put your family first before anything else. You have your husband waiting for you, you have your daughters waiting for you, and then you also have me. You're not alone any longer, Summer Rose. Since it's lonely being left blooming alone, isn't it?"

She returned the hug softly, feeling bad at putting the woman on the spot like she had just done. Maybe it was unnecessary because Summer knew what being alone felt like, but she had to do it. The feeling of truly losing someone, she had to.

"After all, who would inhibit this bleak world alone?"

It was here, amidst the Sleeping Forest full of thorns, that one rose stopped wilting, and another finally began to bloom.

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Author's Note

That's it! The end of chapter 2 which took months to finish... I'm sure some of you may have noticed something about the two-dimensional vines part, not many characters out there are based off Sleeping Beauty after all. There will be some elements from other anime or game in this story, but it won't be too much to the point it's basically a crossover. And no, there won't be any affair between Briar and Summer, period. By the way, how many of you're not into female/female relationship? Since you're browsing RWBY fan fiction, I'll assume that you're fine with yuri, yeah?


	3. Chapter 3

Hello there! This is a third chapter of something I've written out just because the initial plot was there in my head! But to think that there were some people liking this series, that's incredible! This chapter was kinda hard though, I kept rewriting it again and again until this came out. Most of OC stories out there are either an actual OC with background in Remnant or an actual SI, I try to use it all, you know. If you continue reading after this chapter, then it means that I've captured your interest with my OCs instead of the fact that it's just RWBY fanfiction!

Disclaimer: You know, the usual stuff. I only own my OCs.

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Chapter 3: Mother | Blood and Bond

"So, this is your Semblance, or at least a part of it?"

Breathing in the mixture of sandalwood, root, and rose for one last time, Briar stepped back from the older woman and watched as she reached out for the thorny vines that surrounded them. It was a defense mechanism of Gravedigger that seemed to materialize after she unlocked her own Aura and Semblance.

These vines listened and reacted to her very thoughts, all she had to do was think and they would carry her demand out without fail. It would have been better if their reach went further than four meters radius around her however, since it's not good for her mental health to be this close with dying Grimm.

It's just… disgusting, why can't Ozpin just deal with Salem already?

"You could say that," she answered as she willed a tiny vine to wrap itself around Summer's fingertip, concentrating quite a bit so that it would do no harm to the Huntress. She was good at this since she had so many practices with them, and considering how often she found Violet tangled up in these vines?

She needed to be.

The most disturbing part of that was Violet had a good time.

"I've never ever heard of something like this before."

One corner of her mouth lifted itself in response to the interest in those glittering silver eyes. The more she observed this person before her, the more her desire to preserve this beautiful rose grew. It was a steady thing, and she was sure that by the end of this meeting, it would be at an unbelievably height.

While the community had many theories going on about Summer's demise, there were some that suggested that Summer was still alive in Ruby's time. Since by the rule of anime, no corpse meant no concrete death. And even with corpse, if the writer felt like it, they would still have some kind of impact to the story one way or another. The existence of one Penny Polendina hinted at the possibility of cyborg or immortality by converting conscious mind into an algorithm.

Not only that, the fact that she existed in this world meant that she could bring Summer back just like she did with her family. Still, she could prevent her death instead of thinking of a way to bring her back in the first place, but…

Eh, better safe than sorry.

If the life on Remnant had taught her anything, it'd be that mindset. Especially when they were actually on the run from Salem, in case that evil villainess knew she existed, they needed to be prepared.

"Are you free after this?"

"I, I do, why?"

She gazed into the woods and shook her head, the presence of her sisters meant that their problem had been taken care of. It should be good, considering that they came back supposedly unharmed, but knowing Ariana…

"Briar?! What… Where is that useless piece of shit?"

That was a rhetorical question, a simple trick Ariana often used when she encountered any form of complication. She knew it even before the blur of black and silver raced past the two of them into the house, probably to throttle that useless piece of shit's throat for not informing them of their current predicament.

Did she ever mention that half of Team SLVE fought against half of Team STRQ during Vytal Festival Tournament? Probably not, but now would be the best time if a smile forming on Lilith's face could mean anything else but chaos and mischief.

It was Ariana Esther and Lilith Orabelle versus Summer Rose and Raven Branwen. As Squall had put it when she asked, it was a match made in heaven. However, considering that Haven Academy was the host back then, it might be another pun and she might need to get back to him as soon as situation permit.

It probably didn't help that Raven remembered Ariana from her earlier career before she became Huntress-in-Training. Or that Ariana thrashed them all, alone.

"You… Do I know you?"

She turned from Summer to Lilith who had decided that confrontation was in order. Unlike Ariana whose mind had concluded that escaping was a better option, the woman before them stood with confidence that could only be found in a master or a fool. She knew that it was the former, at least occasionally.

"We fought, years ago in that tourney. I had to forfeit because my partner decided that eating tons of unfamiliar food before a fight was a good idea. Well, said someone just ran away with a serious case of embarrassment a second ago."

Summer Rose glanced at the clueless looking face of her newly discovered cousin, and then back at an object of her nightmare back when she was just a student. It took a while, but realization hit her like a brick. Back then, the person before her was a blonde swordswoman with a swordplay that could match Raven evenly.

Now though, now…

Not minding her casual clothing, aside from the hair that had turned white at some point, Lilith Orabelle looked practically the same as when she wiped the floor with them. Those sharp eyes, red like a bloody currant, still looked at her with interest.

Just like all those years ago.

"You dyed your hair? They were beautiful, not that I think white doesn't suit you or anything but… How do I put this, it's quite a change of character? I barely recognize you, and it's been so long since we last saw each other as well. I… I'll just shut up."

Not that the character of Summer Rose that she had established in her head was canon or something, but to see someone of her caliber so flustered? She wished she had picked up her Scroll when Squall brought her down. However, wasn't this one of those rare moment she could tease Lilith? Let's see…

"Wow, your hair was not white? Lilith? Edgy much?"

"Like you could talk, Briar. Oh, no offense there, honey. If you're not taken, then I might make a move. Unfortunate, hmm?" Winking and smiling brightly at the guffawed Summer Rose, Lilith Orabelle manhandled her bed hair like a champ.

It was to the point she couldn't help but purred softly under her breath as those soft hands ran through her hair. While Ariana was an expert in the field of housework and culinary arts, someone who braided her own hair into faux undercut braids every single day like Lilith took the cake in her opinion.

So, if she had to go to someone for a comment on anything fashion, it'd be this woman instead of the motherly Ariana. Gods knew if that woman even wore make up, someone with such natural beauty only existed in fiction!

Hmm…

Let's not go there, shall we?

"Where's the grocery?"

Well, she did walk around emptyhanded.

Lilith's Semblance was something that even the pseudo-immortality she got from Violet and Yuri could not hope to compare. The ability to fade away from existence was one thing, but gaining access to an alternate realm existing on a different frequency from Remnant? That was another whole bag of cats altogether.

It was an ability that the Lilith from seven years ago could not even think of, let alone trying to achieve. Lilith's Semblance revolved around the concept of shifting objects from one dimension to another, and oftentimes, it's her own body.

There was a limitation, of course.

The first time Lilith tried, she ended up a red pile on the floor. Oh, how she came far from that, thinking back to those times she had to put her big sister back together again and again had brought her to tears. And that's just Lilith, let's not talk about how she had to find bits and pieces of Squall all over the field.

"Oi, are you even listening?"

"Nn? I didn't?"

"Yes, you sure as hell didn't. What's with you, not getting enough of your beauty sleep? Anyway, how does inviting her family over for dinner sound to you? Up for babysitting a couple of kids while us adults talk business?"

Oh, you better sleep with one eye opened, you…

"I was about to ask the same thing. Will you come, cousin?"

Summer seemed out of place as she situated herself on the front row seat, watching their exchange like the best kind of audience one could ask for. That was not her goal, if she felt like Summer was a family then she had to make this work. No wonder where Ruby got her social anxiety from, that awkward smile told her everything she needed to know. So, it came from Summer, huh?

"Yes, we don't really have any plan tonight so, yes, we will. But… Is it alright to prepare for five extra people? Three adults and two kids?"

It's a wonder how her job didn't change her.

This only fueled the fire…

Ruby needs Summer, and she'll make it happen.

"It's fine, our chef is the type that either cooks enough for half a person or too much for a small army. Hmm, if it helps, how about you bake something for the kids? I'll prepare something good, in case we need to catch up or something?"

Ignoring the jab at Ariana's tendency to cook enough for them to survive on the leftovers for an entire week, that wink was anything but subtle. The hints her dear sister kept dropping here and there had already piled up into something she didn't look forward to. Three adults could mean anything, there was even a possibility that it'll be Ozpin and Glynda coming instead of Qrow or Taiyang.

She's not ready for Ozpin, at least not yet.

"So, how about around seven?"

"Yes, that should work."

She tuned out most of the conversation after that as her mind went to her chance of survival tonight. If push came to shove, they could run away and start over again somewhere else. Mistral was still a no due to the risk of being exposed by past associate, while she could change hair color like Lilith's white hair instead of blonde, altering facial feature was still a bit too much.

Besides, she kind of liked Ruby and Yang.

This had to work.

After waving goodbyes to the three smiling neighbors, she dropped her expression just as soon as her hand fell to her side. The first thing that came to mind was what would be on the menu for tonight, but that was not her job. Sighing at the thought, she closed the door behind her and followed Lilith into the kitchen.

"That went better than expected, huh?"

She glanced up at Lilith and shrugged, at least Summer didn't run a sword through Lilith's stomach, so that's one good thing out of that confrontation at the least. Well, she was unarmed, but tonight might be different since there will be two more trained and capable Huntsmen at their table.

"Tonight, it might not," she bit out briefly and collapsed onto the counter. Ariana had already put away all the groceries Lilith had somehow dumped on the kitchen island, so that was a plus. And since there's something positive, the opposite also rang true as the woman was now staring at her.

"So… Summer, huh."

The look in her eyes said it all.

"You're still the best, don't worry about it."

Her reassurance nearly fell on deaf ears as Ariana tried to speak up again but stopping herself short just before doing so. It went through, she knew that her thought went through the wall of insecurity the former bounty hunter had developed over the course of their relationship. The small smile she had come to love and cherish was there as an evidence after all. Furthermore, since this was practically her fault in the first place, she had to step up and take the blame.

She had ruined Ariana, there was no denying that. Because the night that she had pulled the trigger while they were all away on their missions, a part of this woman had died along with her. No mother could stand to see her own child taking their own life, and she knew that the person she so wanted to call mother was no different. The instance she had woken up the next morning was still fresh in her mind, blush hair disheveled, honey colored eyes red and puffy from crying…

No one in her family except her can cry, she selfishly vowed to herself that day.

She could still feel the same tears she cried that day welling up even now. Not only that, but she could feel what Ariana felt through their connection. It was because of this that she needed to keep Summer safe. Raven was one thing, but she cannot let Ruby go through the same thing as Yang, those two needed Summer.

So many people needed Summer Rose.

Counting up to four, no… five, she heaved a tired sigh.

It was the softness of Ariana's palm on her cheek that brought her back and filled her with determination. Hmm, always wanted to use that phrase.

"I take it that they will be here?"

"Yes, and I might need to pry open Oliver's stash tonight. I sure as hell can't talk about all that shit sober. I know you'll want one, honey. You ran, after all." That question was meant for her, and the fact that it was Lilith who answered elicited a groan from the always prim and proper member of their family.

It was kind of funny to see an someone so strong reacting like this. Sure, it was an embarrassing mistake, having to forfeit because of stomachache like that. But Ariana Esther was no awkward young adult. The woman she had come to adore would not back down just because of an embarrassing history like that.

Well, one could say that she learned something new every day.

"Where's Squall anyway?"

"Apparently," sniggered the motherly Ariana. "Yang was quite a handful after she watched the video you put on for her and Ruby, you see. She wants to learn how to fight, and as far as I know, Squall might be a better option than Taiyang."

There was one thing she knew about changing things.

She didn't give a single fuck about it.

But still…

"Squall's style doesn't suit the girl, I just know it. She's more of a brawl, you know? Squall fights with his head, but I bet that girl will literally fights with her head if she must. Besides, his style is geared toward reacting, and no one reacts like him."

Lilith had a point. Squall's reaction speed was monstrous. He could calculate bullet paths during a messy firefight, so she knew that trying to fight like him will be an impossible task. That guy could dodge a bullet on his bad day, she'll give him that.

Now that she thought about it, weren't they like…

Too OP for this shit?

They could go and literally knock on Salem's door and tell the Queen and her lovely servants to keep it down, then come back home to a warm dinner. However, in doing so, won't human just fight each other instead? The tension between Human and Faunus will rise through the roof without Grimm as common enemy, so…

Yeah, let's just keep Salem.

Cinder and Emerald are quite hot as well, having them around won't…

"You're thinking of something weird, aren't you?"

She looked up at Lilith, a bit scandalized at having her thought prodded and poked like a pickled specimen. The connection should be one way, so how did Lilith…

"It's on your face, dear."

Oh, oh…

"I blame Violet."

"Lewd thoughts, it seems."

Ariana laughed at that and was pulled away by Lilith to search for that stash she had mentioned being owned by one Oliver Greene. It's a debate, letting them run around like a headless chicken or throwing them the proverbial bone. She had to tip her hat off to Oliver though, hiding all his alcohol in Lilith's room like that.

How the man did it without being caught, she had no idea. It shouldn't have been that easy even with how his Semblance worked. Sure, he could hide in plain sight, but if Ariana could spot him, then what say Lilith couldn't?

Ariana gave up about thirty minutes into the search and came back to the kitchen with a list of menus for her to choose. As for Lilith, apparently having no minion to order around made it become less fun for her, so she enlisted Squall into her little adventure. Despite her personality and her seniority, Lilith decided it's best not to boss her around and left her to her device.

It's not that Lilith's afraid of her, no.

The last time she offered to help, she found herself neck deep in some conspiracy regarding drug shipment with this big dude from downtown Vale.

Her first errand didn't go as planned, to say the least.

That day, Vale Police Department got their jobs handled for them by a group of vigilantes. If it's any consolation, they're not wanted by the official. It'd be troublesome if there're wanted posters with their faces everywhere after all.

So… she was practically forbidden from doing lots of things.

The most they allowed her to do was knitting.

That cardigan Ariana had changed into was one of the failed attempt however. She could see all the mistakes even from her place here at the counter separating kitchen and dining room. She wanted to complain, but those smiles always made her unable to. Ariana was so happy just with the fact that it's a gift from her.

She may as well give her a dead rat and the woman would still treasure it like a prized possession. She just didn't have the heart to rob her of those happiness. And knowing her past, she just couldn't.

"You're frowning, my little rose."

Ariana and her way of showing affection, Briar simply sighed contently and nuzzled against the cold palm caressing her cheek. Every bit of worry was chased away and replaced with a trace of smile as each second ticked by. The silence shared between them made her think. She wanted Ariana to be happy…

But she didn't know how.

What could someone like Ariana Esther possibly need?

The first answer that came to mind and was rejected immediately was a daughter, she already was one to Ariana in all but name. The next to come was a lover, which was already filled out by none other than Lilith. No, it didn't matter how they hide it, as she had stated before, subtleness was not Lilith's strong suit.

Many answers kept springing up, but she could not imagine the look on Ariana's face once she received any of them. There was expensive plushies, exquisite ingredients, exotic clothing, and even something like world peace.

But no, none of that worked in her head.

Just how can she…?

"Making such face, what are you thinking about?"

She closed her eyes before giving Ariana her answer.

"I want you to be happy."

That was everything that survived the filter that was in between her brain and her mouth. She wanted to tell her more, how worried she had become with all the tells and signs she and Lilith had noticed during the past week. Ariana had history with Qrow and Raven, and it was not pretty because the last time they talked, the current head of Branwen Tribe almost ran a blade through Ariana's throat.

Things went downhill after that meeting between the two.

Ariana still smiled, but she realized how fragile said smile had become, and for someone who's close to Ariana like Lilith, it was too much. She spoke up to Ariana like this because Lilith couldn't bear to break what's left of this smile.

She could, she even did it once already…

That's why there's nothing holding her back from this.

"You were a criminal," she stopped at the wince coming from her dear family. "You were once branded a criminal because you tried your best to survive. You were an orphan without any form of education, but you stood up for yourself, Aria. I respect that burning fire within you. The moment your Aura was unlocked, you decided to do whatever you could to make this wretched world a better place. You became a bounty hunter to keep on surviving, you were brave, but you were an outlaw. Because of that, I respect your resolve. However, you've changed…"

"I… have changed," like a broken record, the former bounty hunter let the sentence rolled off her tongue as if trying to taste it. And from that small smile at the corner of her lips, she knew that it tasted divine to the fragile woman before her.

"Yes, you've changed. Sure, you became a huntress-in-training so that you could further your ideal without any hindrance from the officials, but you're not like that now, are you? You were selfish and cruel, but you know of love now, don't you? You wanted to mold the world into a safe haven for everyone with your own twisted way, but you've come far from that now, haven't you? You've become someone who could smile at the sight of a broken child reaching out to you, haven't you?"

"You're not broken! You're perfect the way you are! It's me that…"

"It's nature against nurture here, Aria. You've raised me like one of your own life and blood for the past seven years, if I'm perfect, then you're too. I'm sorry I couldn't really be your daughter by blood, but can I be a bit selfish? Since I don't really know if you can have a child with how your body has become, can I be your daughter until we can figure everything out? Even by adoption, I really want to…"

She couldn't finish what she wanted to say, but it was fine. There was no hesitation in her mind as she returned the embrace unlike how she was earlier with Summer. She was a Rose, but she had no right to call Summer anything but cousin. It didn't matter how much she wanted to, that desire still paled to the seven years of love and affection Ariana had showered her with. So, it was fine to wait.

Just a bit more, she could wait until then.

"Can I call you Mom?"

She heard something crack, it might have been either her spinal cord or one of her ribs, but any injury can wait at this point. Ariana's past was a delicate subject for all of them, the one and only fight Team SLVE ever had was because of this topic as well. It was on their first mission, they simply wanted to deepen their bonds.

What started out so innocent turned ugly when it was Ariana's turn to share. If she had to quote Squall, then it would be Ariana's repressed memories that turned their simple scouting mission into a survival exercise straight from hell. Each member of the team was smart, and they could connect the dots almost instantly when they heard the sound of movement from all around them in the forest full of Grimm.

The first to point finger was Lilith Orabelle.

It was a wonder how the two ended up together when they almost killed each other on their first mission. The memories of their time together under a single cover had traumatized her a bit after she sorted through everything with her Semblance. She never knew human body could bend that way…

"You're thinking of something weird again. It seems like I'll need to have a stern talk with Violet after tonight if this keeps up. It really is on your face, dear. What is it this time? Do I even want to know? It's not about me, is it?"

When she only offered her silence as an answer, Ariana's face turned bright red it rivaled even the box of strawberries on the counter. Maybe there will be one more casualty after this conversation come to an end.

Violet should be fine since it will only be a Scroll talk, but Lilith might not be so lucky. She would have to leave the door to her room slightly ajar tonight; the couch was uncomfortable for adult after all. It's not the first time Lilith had to spend the night on a couch, and it's not going the first time she found the two of them on the couch together the next morning either. They're adorkable like that.

Nevertheless, you can't just change subject like that, woman.

"Aria, you haven't answer me?"

The normally elegant big sister of the family had this sheepish look on her face as she tried to school her expression. Briar waited, she had postponed this for almost seven years already, she could continue to wait for a few moments more. The guilt of what she had done without thinking of consequence was there, but the one resulting from not admitting her own feeling was now taking over. If Ariana couldn't become her mother in this life, then she may as well declare herself an orphan out of spite. The first thing she had seen in this life was Ariana's bewildered look, the second was a smile, third was a frown, and then it was all smile…

Seeing Summer with Ruby and Yang made her think.

The warmth similar to Summer's embrace…

Its source was already right beside her, it was next to her from the beginning. She was so blind and denied a woman of her chance to become a mother for nearly seven years, and now she demanded to be her child. If Ariana declined, then…

"You can, and you may, Briar. You already have the right to call me whatever you wish the moment our eyes met that day, my little rose. I've made the two of you worried sick, haven't I? Seeing Summer with her kids is just… I don't know. It makes me think about what will happen if we've never met you that day? No, no, don't make that kind of face, dear. I didn't mean it that way, it's just…"

Her vision blurred, and it took her a moment and a worried look from Ariana to realize that she was crying. She had never imagined that a single train of thought could have caused so much pain. Blinking away the tears from her eyes, she raised her right hand and placed it atop her chest where the pain originated.

Was this, what they felt when she pulled the trigger? Was this the same thing that Summer must've felt when she pulled that stunt earlier? It's a taste of her own medicine, a poison to be precise. It hurt so much she wanted to scream.

"I'm glad we've met each other, Briar Rose."

Glad? As in… happy? She's happy? But…

"I've killed all of you?"

The silence following that question was deafening. The fact that the answer was not immediate spoke of something she would rather not hear. The truth was that she was the cause of their demise, every single one of them died because of her. The weight of hundreds if not thousands was on her shoulder and she cannot deny that.

Had she told Watts about her Semblance, then maybe…

"Hold it, pipsqueak."

She jumped slightly at the voice and turned back to face the one that had derailed her train of thought. Lilith and Squall was there, the former right beside her with a telltale sign of frustration in her mannerism while the latter remained at the dining table with a calculated expression on his face. Lilith was angry, she knew this.

But Squall, she couldn't help but whimper at the lack of smile on his face.

"You know you're not that important, right? It's not because of you that we died, yeah? It's already set in stone that the facility will be wiped clean, success or not. Out of all people that died during the stampede that day, we're the lucky ones here. Me, Aria, Squall, Violet, Oliver, and Yuri, we're lucky that we've met you, Briar."

She couldn't hear anything past the ringing in her ears except for maybe the first sentence. It was just as Lilith had stated, _she wasn't important, she was just a small pebble on the road in a grand scheme of things. She was worthless, she shouldn't have woken up again after closing her eyes that time._

 _She did not belong here, she was not even real._

 _The death should remain six feet under, and nowhere else._

"It was because of me…"

"Dust damn it, listen here, kid. Yeah, we died. But it's not because of you, it's because of that damn doctor! We're alive and breathing now because of you! You may think it's just your Semblance that bring us back, while it is true, we're not a puppet dancing to your tune. No, I am willing to dance to your tune. I owe you my live, I could say goodbye to my family, I could see them for the last time unlike those poor souls that didn't even know what they die for. You did good, kid."

She knew Lilith was still talking, maybe she was being scolded? There was a pair of hands on her shoulder as well, they were warm, so it's probably Ariana. Squall, why did he look like that? He seemed panic? _No, no, he's smiling…_

 _He was smiling, and then the loud crack thundered throughout the clearing, and then, and then his smile turned cold. Blood covering half of his face, a part of his head blown off, yes, there was something pinkish littering the ground as well._

 _He was smiling, so he must be glad?_

 _Oh, he's happy then._

It was then that she was pulled into a hug, a tight and suffocating hug. She tried to look up and the rambling noise and where _this scalding hot liquid was coming from._ Ah, it was Ariana. Why were you shouting? Were you angry?

"Please, don't cry?"

 _"I'm so glad you're safe, my little rose…"_

Hmm? She's shouting at her, but why… _Why did her voice sound so gentle?_ She's still screaming at her, but why couldn't she hear anything? _Wait, ah, that's right, that smile, she remembered that shaky smile._

 _Ariana had said it, after all. She was smiling too!_

 _She's finally happy, yay._

"Kid! Look at me! Briar! Oi, Squall, what's happening here!?"

Alright, no need to get physical there. _Oh, Lilith? Wasn't her hair like, blonde? Did she dye them white as a dare? Wait, it went back to blonde again. Huh, why was everything so red? Her eyes stung as well, why? This headache, why?_

"No, no, she's bleeding all over! Her eyes, her nose, her ears…"

 _No, Lilith, why were you bleeding? Please don't die, okay?_

 _Uhm, what was she supposed to say?_

 _Oh, right, that._

"Wiwidd…"

"Wha…?"

 _Ugh, it's no good? She seemed shocked?_

 _Gah, stop shaking…!_

"No, is this, no, no…"

 _Oh, she's smiling. Weak, but it's a smile nonetheless._

 _Since she's smiling, Lilith must be happy, yes._

 _Eh? What were you trying to say?_

"I'm… sorry?"

 _Why were you saying sorry? Lilith?_

 _Please don't leave me?_

 _Hey, Lilith?_

"It can't be… from that time?"

"What? But… it never happens before!"

"Aria, she's reliving her nightmare."

 _She felt nauseous again, it must be Lilith's power?_

She was proven wrong as she looked down at both of her hands that suddenly shot up to her mouth. Then, with a short series of violent cough, she drew them back and was greeted with red. Red like how everything was to her at the moment, red like the thing that she had just seen on her adopted siblings.

What was it again? Blood? …they were bleeding!?

Her gaze shot up to a worried looking Squall who smiled back shakily after swallowing something hard, he was not shot by a sniper round. That's good, he was still smiling, but his smile wasn't dead cold anymore, so it's good enough for her.

She then took a short glance at Lilith; her big sister was also worried. She wasn't bleeding any longer, and when she looked around in suspicious, there were no signs of a certain doctor she detested with her passion. She's safe, Lilith's safe…

The last one, right, Ariana. She looked back over her shoulder and flinched at the sight. Ariana was crying, her mother was crying, why didn't anyone help her? She tried her best to pry Lilith's hands away from her forearm and stumbled back into Ariana's waiting arms. It's no good, the cardigan was being dirtied with her blood. Well, it's good riddance? She can knit her a new one this time.

The best knitted cardigan in Remnant, that sounded good.

It will be a gift to her new mother then.

So please, please…

"Please don't cry, Mom."

All she could feel was a tight embrace and a familiar warmth that was accompanied by a quiet lullaby in her ears. There were no lyrics, nothing to convey the feeling behind the song except for this beautiful voice. It urged her to cast away all her worries and let herself go with the voice nurturing her broken soul.

She held on, she can't let herself go, not just yet.

In desperation, she tried and reached out for the source of warmth and comfort in front of her. She could feel something soft, but then it was gone. In its place however, was a warm hand wrapping itself around her bloodied one. It was sudden, as if its owner had no second thought at all, but she knew its owner nonetheless.

"It's alright, everything will be alright, dear."

It was then, and only then, that darkness consumed her.

* * *

Author's Note!

Our protagonist seemed trippy right there, didn't she? If you want to blame anyone, blame Squall and his face! It's what triggered that reaction after all. Let's think about it, a young teen with minimal social interaction in a body of something that can barely be considered human. Her psyche level's not gonna be pretty. And considering what she had experienced, that's also no good. Having the same nightmare every night? Are you kidding me? The fact that she can keep on smiling is already admirable. So yeah, Squall and his face had just trigger Briar's PTSD. This is just the beginning, but you can give me a review as well, yes!


	4. Chapter 4

Hello there! Yes, hello once again! If you're still here then it's probably because you have nothing else to do or you like this story! Well, it's been quite a while since last update, hmm? To be honest, I was doing other things, you know, gaming for example. Also! I kinda hit a stop? I have planned a lot of things for this story but it's the road to get there that's troublesome for me. Anyway, this chapter is technically a filler, but I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, only the OCs.

* * *

Chapter 4: Appetizer | Plots and Plans

It was nearly a month ago that Raven had contacted him about a certain team of Huntsmen-in-Training that had gone MIA seven years ago. Back then, he thought she was pulling his legs like the old days, there was no way a team of people of that caliber could lay low for this long. However, when he realized that it was not the usual voice only Scroll call, he took her words seriously. He could still hear the thing she said back then like it was on repeat inside his ears.

"Arachnid is back, she said."

Qrow Branwen muttered under his breath as he narrowed his eyes at a sleek black Scroll in his clutch. Summer had just called and asked him to come home as soon as possible. It came with a favor, however. The name he had heard was something straight out of fairytale, and perhaps it might actually be real.

Just like the Story of the Seasons...

Briar Rose, a name that did not exist in any official database on Remnant. He had to pull some strings and call in some favors to look into it, and sure enough the net he casted came back empty. If that did not ring any alarm then what else could?

That must be the little girl that he was unable to identify when he decided that an observation was in order for their neighbors. It was on the second day after their new neighbors had settled down that he carried out his plan.

The first one he noticed was of course, the Spider.

A week after Raven's call, he felt that chill running down his back at the sight of someone that had been the main protagonist of his nightmare for years.

She was someone he would never forget, and the reason was not because of her unnatural beauty or the humiliation he and his sister had suffered in front of the whole tribe. This woman was the one who had triumphed over their combined effort in their younger years alone, and come out of the fight almost unscathed. The reason why the Branwen Tribe had survived against the whimsical bounty hunter was that the person herself had no manpower to deal with all of them accordingly.

The fact that the fight only ended after Raven had dealt a shallow cut on her cheek told him that such reason was a simple lie, and that the name Death God the Mistralian crime sybdicates had coined for her was not without reason.

Ariana Esther, the Arachnid, the Silver Scourge.

Some of the footages they could salvaged from the facility's security camera seven years ago had shown how she slaughtered horde of Grimms with overwhelming power and coldhearted brutaliy. But the thing was that she was not a demigod, and even the strongest of them all could still succumb to the foe when they exhausted their Aura reserve. The last he had seen of her until today was the way she was dogpiled by several dozens of Beowolf before the footage was cut off.

Her hair was the same shade of pink that he had only seen from the petal of cherry blossom, and it was also the reason why he could spot her at his first glance. She was not a sight of sore eyes like one of those Schnees, and he had to admit that she was not unpleasant to his eyes either. The woman still looked pretty much the same, but the charm of an adult that had not been there before was present. Her droopy eyes that held a dangerous glint would still draw most of men to her like a moth to a flame, and he would not be an exception had he not known what was hidden under those smiles she gave to everyone like free candies on Halloween.

Ariana Esther was a definition of power, this he was sure of.

Next was the one Leonardo Lionheart of Haven Academy had named the Strongest Undergraduate, Lilith Orabelle. He was skeptical of the man's words at first, but when the woman forced both Raven and Summer back alone during the Vytal Festival Tournament, he was just as shocked as he could ever be. Had they not forfeited, who knew what the outcome of that battle might have been.

He, for one, did not even want to know.

Because even from the way the woman could match Raven strike for strike while avoiding Summer at the same time, she was barely out of breath when her partner suddenly ran out of the ring and the fight became two-on-one. They threw the fight, and sure as hell Raven was so pissed that she couldn't exact revenge.

Not much could be said about her, but from what he had seen, Lilith and Ariana were too close and too affectionated for former teammates.

Then there was a close encounter with the one and only Squall Marlowe when he flew up to the second floor in his crow form. One aura penetrating round nearly clipped his wing before he could take a look at a sleeping form on the bed in that room. He knew it was a warning shot, but how the man showed no hesitation to shoot had chilled him to the bone. They had exchanged a brief eye contact before the gunslinger lowered his gun and closed the window as well as curtains.

All he knew about this man was that he was one of the fastest gunman he had ever had the chance to see in action. There was a record of his monstrous reaction time from the documents he got from his associate in Haven Academy, but it had been seven years already. If he knew one thing about Squall Marlowe's personality, it would be that the man would do anything to sleep his ass off every single day.

And for Huntsmen, peace equated to absurd amount of strength.

As for the last member of the team, Violet Hunt, she was either the owner of that room he had tried to spy into or that she had perished during the stampede. It was unlikely to be the latter, however, since just like the other three members of Team SLVE, they never found her corpse. It could be that they were acting separately under the same agenda, people of this calibur would never go AWOL without some kind of plot going on. He learned about that fact years ago from his dear sister, after all.

That was almost two weeks ago…

Briar Rose, the name of that girl was probably the last puzzle he needed to get a grasp of the whole picture. A team of monsters dropping off the grid and coming back seven years later with a young kid in tow? Suspicious, it was really suspicious.

He had told Ozpin about the three, but…

The fact that Summer valued the girl as one of her own gave him a pause as he looked down at his Scroll once again. Pocketing it, he heaved out a sigh and tried to find a silver lining in this situation. Being invited to a dinner with three, if not more, academy droputs that must probably be stronger than his own team?

Where's the silver lining again? That's one thick storm cloud.

"At least it's free food, let's just hope it's good."

If he had time to eat, that was.

He shook his head at the absurdity of it all and paused at the sight of a flower shop, at the display of roses to be precise. Briar Rose, the name of a princess in one of the fairytale that more often than not, ended in a slightly morbid note. There were many depiction of the tale, some said the prince raped the sleeping princess, some said the prince woke the princess up with a kiss. He could only hope that the little girl Summer had mentioned did not come from the former version.

It would be nice if his nieces could have a friend that lived close by, gods knew what kind of childhood they will have living in the middle of the woods like that. With Raven gone from her life, Yang's childhood was shaping up into something difficult already, and with Summer's tendency to place protection of civilian before her own safety, truly only gods knew how the future would turn out.

But Summer's voice just then…

She sounded so full of life, like how she was when she saw Ruby for the first time after waking up on hospital bed. The fond smile she had when she mentioned her cousin to him was something that even he would have found odd to witness. There was a hint of disapproval like the subject of their conversation was a misbehaving child, and yet she appeared like she had won in life.

She might just have though, considering how Summer valued her family…

With a tired sigh, he shuffled into a secluded alley and transform into a crow and flew off into the open water, on his way back to the place he had come to call as a home. He was away on a mission for almost a month, and he would be damned if he let his suspicion get better of him and delay his return.

He missed his two nieces too much, after all.

It didn't take him long to fly from Vale harbor to Patch, into the woods, and arriving at an impressive two story log cabin that was Xiao Long-Rose Family Home. The atmosphere was still the same as he had remembered, the last time he was here for more than a chat was nearly three months ago. Working for Ozpin had kept him from staying at one place for a very long time, even if said place was his home.

It didn't matter how strong and capable he had become after his graduation, he was still a human that needed some rest and recreation. Even those robots from Atlas needed some maintenance done to continue operating. He had to tell Ozpin that not everyone ran on caffeine, at least not him.

The raven haired Huntsman transformed back into his human form and walked up to the door. However, just before his hand could even touch the knob, the door was flung open and he was suddenly attacked by two object flying at a speed of sound.

"Unkul Qwow! You're bwack!"

"Welcome back, Uncle Qrow!"

Catching the two and stepping back to lessen the momentum, he chuckled at his enthusiastic nieces and hugged them back. It had been a while since he can let his guard down completely like this, and the presence of these two was practically healing to him with what his job entailed. So that was probably the reason why he let them manhandle him inside the house and set him down on their favorite couch.

The two went on about their new neighbors like they were the most interesting group of people they had met in their entire life, which was probably true considering their living arrangement. There were not much that he hadn't known, but some of the information the two happily gave out to him was interesting, to say the least. They had seen something that might've been Briar Rose's Semblance.

He needed to ask Summer about this, and speak of the devil…

Looking up from his nieces, he was greeted to the sight of one Summer Rose in an apron and a pair of oven mittens. The mirthful look she sent his way was enough for him to shrug that the sight he must be to her. Being dogpiled on the couch by two little girls should have put quite a dent in his reputation, they were his family though, so reputation be damned.

"Come now, he's just come back, why don't you two give him a little time to breath. He may not look it, but you might break his old bones, you know?"

A playful chide from their mother was already enough for the little ankle biters to give him some breathing room. While unneeded, he still appreciated the thought Summer had put into his well-being. He nodded to the woman and simply tuned out their little exchange after Summer implied that the two should go and clean up for their dinner party. He didn't think it would be much of a party, but eh… free food was free food.

If they still wanted to remain under the radar for as long as they had been, he was sure that those three wouldn't do anything in front of children considering that there was one on their side as well. He snapped out of his own musing when he heard series of muffled footstep running up the flight of stairs. Then came a muted scolding that sounded undoubtedly like their father, it told him of the location of his last teammate in the loghouse they all called home.

It was then that he was alone with Summer.

"So, what have you got on her?"

He could only sigh.

"Not much, there were various sightings of the girl in many of the settlements around Mistral, and considering that Raven had a run-in with the Arachnid about a month ago, well… It's given that they operated in Mistral for quite a while, but that's it. There's no record of the girl named Briar Rose in any database. No birth cirtificate, no medical document, no identification, I'm not even sure if the name she's given you is really her name or not. She's one heck of a mystery, Summer."

That rewarded him with a snort, "that makes all of them, then."

"They should be dead, not even professional huntsmen could survive the the middle of a stampede that big, much less coming out unscathed like they did. They're strong back then, I don't wanna think how strong they are now…"

If the proverbial shit did hit the fan, he was sure he could do some serious damage to one of them before going down. However, the fact that they looked just fine could mean that they were able to recover from life threatening injuries, and that only meant that the healer of the group, Violet Hunt, was alive somewhere else.

A safety net to fall back to, perhaps?

It's a common sense that made putting medic or someone with Semblance that could heal in the forefront of the battle seem stupid, but with what he had learnt of Violet Hunt, it certainly was the opposite. The longer that woman fought, the stronger she became. The fact that the person herself developed her aura reserve to quite an enormous size also translated into the uselessness of assassination or surprise attack.

They're all difficult to deal with, and there will be at least three at the dinner. Qrow looked up from the carpeted floor to Summer who still stood at the doorway leading to kitchen. With a heavy sigh, he continued after the long pause.

"Ozpin would want them on our side."

Summer just shook her head at the statement that came out of his mouth, eyes narrowing into something between disapproval and wariness.

"I hope you remember Vytal, Qrow. Because sure as hell I do, and it's not happy memory either. We were one of the strongest teams that Beacon had to offer at the time, and they wiped the floor with us. You're not the one fighting, but from what Raven had let slipped after the match, I know you had some score to settle with one of them. Huntsman and Huntress like us only get stronger as time passes. I want them on our side, but if all else fail, I don't want any of them against us."

He was of the same opinion, but the one that had the last say in this was Ozpin. Sure, the man was smart and knew enough to avoid making unnecessary enemy, but there was a chance in everything, be it previous history or simply bad luck.

He winced at the thought, finding the dinner to be more of a bad idea.

"Can I pass? With my track record…"

"You don't really want to mess this up with your luck, huh?"

That wince turned into a full force grimace.

"I'll give you an idea of what you'll be walking into, but since we don't have much time, it'll have to be a tl;dr version of the info I've gathered. While it's still long, I assure you that this is what you'd want to know if it comes to confrontation."

He nodded at the couch on the other side of the coffee table between them and continued after he was sure that Summer was comfortably seated.

"The first thing you need to know, is that Squall Marlowe is impossibly fast. The information I've gathered from Haven states that his Semblance allows him to hasten the velocity of moving objects around him, and from what I've observed, he could apply the effect to minute movement as well, something like quickdraw or hand-to-hand for example. He's also loaded with AP bullets, so be extra careful."

"Quickdraw, you're being oddly specific."

A dry laugh escaped his lips.

"You could say curiosity almost killed a crow."

The memory of their little encounter resurfaced and he had to force back a shudder. He had seen some stunts concerning quickdraws before, but it was never that fast. In theory, that kind of Semblance could allowed the user to break sound barrier with a punch alone, let alone bullet shot from a simple handgun.

Summer seemed to accept it and nodded so that he could continue.

"He's a genius, but that doesn't hold a candle to the next one, Lilith Orabelle. The way she fought and how she toyed with her opponents during the tournament got her a nickname Vampire, and I'm sure you know why. Her Semblance though, is a tricky one. Phasing through solid objects and teleportation, I'd say she has the ability to mess around with a pocket dimension that she can enter at will?"

"That's what I came to during our fight," admitted Summer.

She could finally remember those wicked red eyes, wisps of pale blonde hair, and a pair of canines that stood out the most as the woman grinned. Vampire, such was a fitting name for someone with so much grace as she played around with her prey.

"I was almost glad to see her name amongst the casualties seven years ago. Lionheart called her the Strongest Undergraduate, and I'm afraid she still holds onto that title. The last member of Team SLVE presented though, is another bag of cats altogether. She didn't move a muscle during your fight, but I'm sure…"

"Ariana won't be a threat, to me at the very least."

"What do you mean…?"

The only real answer he got from Summer was a smile.

"Well, you'll have to wait and see."

* * *

It was the dream again… the nightmare.

She watched everything from the first smile she saw on Ariana's face until the grey sky above as she drowned in her own blood. Remembering everything like a movie scene by scene, she lived through the first few weeks of her life in a dream.

It was a nightmare.

Violet who bore the brunt of the horde as she held back all the Grimm all the while screaming for her to go find Squall. The Leader of Team SLVE was next as he ushered her to safety of the facility building, but then came face to face with men in black. After that was Oliver and Yuri who dragged her from under Squall's corpse, only to be met with more men flooding the facility under Watt's order. She ran and ran and ran.

Then came the worst of her nightmare, the one that tortured her…

She did not know his name, she never knew. It was someone from Ariana's past, the one that tortured her adoptive mother since childhood until she put an end to it when her aura unlocked. More than half of the scars on Ariana's body was his handiwork.

It was too late, however, when help arrived.

The world was so... small.

It was Ariana who came as she was cut up all over. The hell she felt that day lasted longer than she had imagined she would experience. The highlight of it all was when that man pulled her tongue out and pierced a hole in it before leaving her to drown in her own blood. That was what Ariana saw, then next thing she witnessed was the scene of a man sliced to pieces accompanied by a scream full of anger and hatred.

It was unfortunate that he died so close to her that her Semblance also had a hold on his soul. There was a silver lining in these things of course, she used the soul as an experiment as she tried to bring her family back to life. No one knew of this, not even Squall who she loved like a brother or Ariana who was practically her mother.

Her little secret, one she held close to her chest.

It was a revenge for the two of them.

She saw their memories, both this piece of trash and her dear Ariana.

To the man who tortured her out of amusement and the man that made Ariana's childhood a living hell, she practiced putting his soul into the body of a small Grimm. She tortured it in every way she could think of, like a toy, and if it broke, she put it in another small Grimm she can find and then proceeded to kill it, over and over again.

She was a bad girl.

But it was not her fault, really.

Briar Rose was a twisted child like that.

Staring up at the murky sky up above, she made a wish.

All she ever wanted was a dreamless night, a restful sleep, a good dream even once in a while so that she could finally taste happiness. Ariana, Lilith, Violet, Squall… and then Briar. Five of them, one big happy family. That was all she will want and ever wanted.

There were times that she wanted to just sleep through everything and leave all the hassles in the waking world alone. There were also times that she wanted to just wake up from the nightmare that plagued her slumber every single night. But this time, she wanted to wake up, even if it was a restful sleep or one with good dreams. There was someone waiting for her, no, there were many people waiting… Her precious family.

I beg of you, I beg of you, I beg of you...

Someone, please wake me up from this nightmare…

* * *

It was nothing like those stories or the animes. When she woke up from a restless sleep or a god awful nightmare, there was nothing like waking up gasping or panting. She just jolted awake, blinking a bit, wondering what the hell was going on, and that was it.

This time was the same, she just opened her eyes and glanced at her bedside where someone was holding onto her right hand like a lifeline. The room was dark, but she can still see the outline of this person, and she knew this scent, this warmth…

"Mom..."

Ariana jolted awake at her word.

There was a surprised expression, but it soon gave way to happiness.

"My little rose, thank goodness, you're awake."

Just hearing her voice brought tears to her eyes already.

Ariana reached out with one of her hands and switched the lamp on her bedside table on. The soft and warm light allowed her to see the person that was still holding her hand with clarity. She was wearing her casual clothes, one of those wide collar sweater dress that fell off one of her shoulders. If she was a man or Lilith, it would surely get her heart racing. Her adoptive mother sure was beautiful, but that's not important now.

"I'm sorry, worrying you like this."

A watery smile was all she got as Ariana pulled her into a tight embrace.

She inhaled the full brunt of vanilla and perhaps cinnamon before melting into it. She let Ariana do whatever she wanted as she leaned into the sweet smell and the right temperature of this hug. She wouldn't mind all the nightmare if this was what she woke up to every single morning. If she played her cards right, she might actually be able to sleep with Ariana and make Lilith sleep on the couch down stair? Ohoho!

Glancing at the digital clock, she returned the hug.

"Good evening, Aria."

"Hmm? Not calling me Mom anymore?"

Ariana pulled back and as their eyes met, that question came.

She pondered about it a little and answered.

There's no way she can tell that it's embarrassing, can she?

"Every word has magic. Too much, and it might not be magical anymore."

"Is that so? Isn't it just too embarrassing for you?"

"Guh..."

"Mother knows best, my little rose."

The smug tone in Ariana's voice forced her to smile. If she had to say, then this was the happiest she had ever heard from her voice. The rough childhood Ariana had led was something even her had to avert her eyes from. She was used, she was tortured, the life of an orphan in the lower levels of Mistral was not kind to her in the least.

"Was it a nightmare again?"

She gulped at that.

It might become a theme at this rate. Squall often greeted her like this when she woke up, and now Ariana was starting to follow the trend. Of course, it was the nightmare. It was the same one every single night, and it was starting to become boring. Back then, she wanted to wake up because of fear, but recently it was boredom that urged her.

She could countdown every sniper shot at this point.

And boy, wasn't that creepy...

"I'm... sorry."

"About?"

"The episode earlier... I was confused? The last thing I remembered before seeing red was hearing Lilith telling me that I was not important? That was the fuel, I guess? Then I saw Squall smiling at me? It was the same kind of smile from that day... and..."

Her sentence trailed off until the only voices in the room were their breathing and the sound of air conditioner once again. Briar averted her eyes from Ariana and looked down at her own lap, trying to think of something to explain what she felt earlier. She wouldn't normally react like that even if it was Ariana calling her trash. Not important was not a diss that could get something out of her, so what was the reason?

"Maybe you didn't get enough sleep?"

"Lack of sleep? Seriously?"

"Well… That or it's a PTSD. I admit that it's not a good thing. But you can't deny that you suffered enough on that day seven years ago. The family you always wanted was lost on you the very same day you finally got to have them. And to dream of it every single night? The fact that you can still smile was a proof that you're very strong."

A gentle pat on the head got a whimper out of her.

"I guess what started it was that question? About my happiness? Briar, while it was not direct, you certainly did kill us... No, listen to me first, alright? While you did kill us, you also gave us a chance. We can say goodbye to our loved ones. We can live on within you. We have a chance to protect you, to pay you this life debt, to really be with you."

That... That was where it all started, wasn't it?

"I guess mother really knows best."

"Give me some credits, would you? You're not the only one that have existential crisis, alright? We've gone through this the moment we woke up with you greeting us in the middle of the aftermath, you know? Why are we alive? Are we no different from those Grimm? Do we really have souls at all? Aren't we just walking corpses now? We broke down one after another, but you were there with us, Briar. So let us be there with you?"

That was right, wasn't it? She was there with them as they broke down to pieces and she tried her very best to piece them all together over and over again. Besides, they were one and the same. The connection was one way, but it was a still connection nevertheless. She can grasp their thought, they can feel her emotion.

It was a connection like that.

Mother knows best, huh.

"You're thinking of something rude right now, aren't you?"

"Seriously, are you secretly a psychic? Esper?"

They shared a quiet laugh after that.

"It's not the first time..."

"I realize."

She looked up from her lap to Ariana again at that admission. Those honey colored orbs glittered with unshed tears as a soft smile formed. Of course, she would know. It did not take long at all for Ariana to figure something out when it came to her. She was the one that came up with all the plans for Team SLVE while Squall who was the leader improvised and capitalized on them on the field. She was smart, frighteningly so.

She wouldn't survive in her earlier days if not.

"It just happened out of sight. Sometimes I woke up with pain in my chest, precisely where I was shot seven years ago. It was like a phantom pain. I was so afraid that if I didn't wake up that morning, my Semblance will ensure that I died in my sleep. There was this one time that I woke up drowning in my own blood as well, like earlier. Had to burn my favorite bed sheet, you know, it's not really salvageable with all the blood."

"Oh, so you didn't wet yourself and want to destroy the evidence?"

"Come on, woman! How old do you think I am!?"

Ariana giggled back at her outburst.

"You're still young in my eyes, my dear little rose."

The only response she could think of on the spot was to grumble back at her. It was true that she will always be young no matter how much time passed. She will always be this little girl while everyone grew old. She could pass it off as a side effect of her Semblance, it would be a Maiden level Semblance but a Semblance nonetheless.

"This is not fair at all, I'll be like, ten? Twelve? I'll be a little girl forever and the only ones that would be interest in me are lolicon! I'd be a legal loli, sure! But it's like..."

"Aww, don't be like that. I'll take care of you forever? How's that?"

"I know you meant it literally, Aria."

"Haha..."

The fact that they could live on forever was not lost on her. She tried everything and the results were all the same. She would wake up after a while with a bit of a fatigue after her Semblance healed all the damages done to her body. She was not like Ozpin that would steal the body of some poor schmucks in the middle of nowhere for a new body.

She could live forever theoretically, and that meant all of her family would be with her every step of the way. They were byproducts of her Semblance, like it or not.

"So... what's for dinner? They should be here soon, I need to get ready."

"They're already here, actually. Squall is dealing with the kids while Lilith is entertaining the adults. Fortunately, it's just Summer, Qrow, and Taiyang. Just... How much are you planning on revealing to them? I don't think showing all our cards is the right call."

It really was not the right call and there was no way she was going to tip her hand this soon into the game. The shadow war between Ozpin and Salem was like a game of chess, the old wizard sure liked it enough to even used chess pieces as relics in the initiation. This game of chess was at stalemate at the moment, but she knew which side will lose in the end. Ozpin was wasting human resources throwing Huntsmen and Huntresses at the Grimm while Salem can create her minions with a snap of fingers.

They won the battles here and there, but they were losing the war.

She can tip the scale, however.

What mattered was that she wanted to do it or not. She saw how people waged wars from her last lifetime, and she knew for sure that if the Grimm were eradicated from the face of Remnant, they will point the weapons in their hands at each other. How human discriminated against faunus was already an evidence enough that it will happen.

Discrimination was something that was taught. No one was born racist. It was the sense of belonging that created racism, discrimination, and bigotry. It was the sense of exclusion that bred all those problems. By nature, every living being was group living animal that viewed outsiders as a very real and serious threat. It was prejudice, something that was hardwired into their brains through the evolutionary process as a mechanism to protect themselves from harm. That was the nature of living beings.

War... No, conflict was never ending. It may be humanity versus Grimm right now, but once Grimm was no more, what would happen next? It would be human kind against faunus kind, and then it would possibly be a war between kingdoms. That was why, in her opinion, stalemate like this was a must. United under one flag to fight against one threat, it was a simple way to acheive some semblance of peace.

Salem was needed, it was just that the Grimm needed to be controlled. That was why she will not tip the scale and maintain this stalemate. People died everywhere after all, and this world was not a beautiful one like one of those fairy tales for kids.

Hell, even fairy tales were dark and bloody. If it wasn't so censored it would be categorized as horror story. The Big Bad Wolf devouring the Little Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother. Hansel and Gretel escaping the Witch only to find their malicious parents awaiting for their return. Snow White biting into the poisoned apple, fully aware of what was going on, wishing for it to restore her mother's heart. Then there was her namesake - the Beauty in the Sleeping Forest - who was violated in the midst of her slumber by the Prince, and waking up only after unknowingly mothered two children.

Things were not beautiful. Black and White were simply the different sides of the same coin. Ozpin could be seen as cruel throwing lives away in the pretext of protecting the peace of humanity as whole. Salem could also be seen as merciful as she kept them all united to fight one threat, preventing them from infighting that could herald the end.

She could not judge, for she was but an audience, and that was why she had decided. With the knowledge she remembered and the power she had gained, she will do every damn thing in her power to maintain the status quo, and live to see tomorrow's dawn.

"Briar? You're doing that again, that thousand yard stare."

"Nn, just thinking."

The question she was asked, how much she will tell.

The answer however was simple.

"I'll tell them enough. Ozpin will know of tonight through Qrow, and even if Lionheart has yet to turncoat and join Salem's faction, I believe we have made enough ripples to alert her of our existence. Having two dead people gallivanting around in Anima should be enough of a neon sign if any of them have functioning eyes. It has been seven years already, but since Watts knew most of us almost personally..."

"He will tell his queen of his mistake sooner or later, right. We may be making an enemy out of both sides though. I don't really mind working out once in a while, but Ozpin has more pieces than Team STRQ. What will you do if it comes to that?"

What will she do if it comes to that, huh?

"It won't."

"Oh?"

Getting down from the bed, Briar smiled at Ariana instead of answering. Her eyes showing her destination and the older woman simply sighed and shook her head.

It took them about five minutes to play dress up in the walk-in closet. She changed out of a simple dress shirt that had been put on her after that episode and got into an equally simple short sleeves black collared dress. The color was offset by a red neck ribbon she was currently tying around her neck. And since this was somewhat restricting enough already, she unfortunately had to forego her favortie jacket this time.

"By the way, what's for dinner again?"

Ariana who waited for her on the bed raised a brow at the question.

"Well, I wouldn't want to bore you with the names?"

"I'll guess and say you cook a lot."

"Something like that."

They stared at each other for a bit before she broke into a smile first. The fact that tonight's cook did not agree or deny her claim was not lost on her. It seemed like she will have to live on leftover for the next few days again. Ariana was the best cook she had ever known whether it was in this life or the last one, but she needed to hold back sometimes and not cooked for an army while there were just four of them.

"Let's go and greet the guests, shall we?"

"Ugh, yup. Let's."

"You didn't run away from Summer, did you?"

"Nope! No, no, why would I? I wouldn't! Yes, I wouldn't."

So she did run away and leave those two to entertain their guests...

Well, Squall was pretty good with children so she wouldn't worry. Lilith though, the only adult she was good with was probably Ariana and they were lovers. Sighing, she hurried down the stair and was greeted with cacophony of laughter and squeal.

"Squall's good with kids, isn't he?"

He totally was.

She could only look as Squall regaled both Ruby and Yang with whatever tall tale he had available at the moment. The kids were so captivated by the suspense that they did not notice her arrival even now. Her big brother was a good storyteller, after all.

"Let's go greet the others, shall we?"

She glanced at Lilith who was entertaining Summer and Taiyang before tilting her head. His eyes were red, almost the same shade as Lilith's eyes, actually. Qrow was looking at her with a raise brow, as if he had finally found something interesting.

It seemed like dinner tonight was going to be quite something…

Looking back at Ariana, she replied with an easy smile.

"Let's go then."

* * *

 **Author's Note!**

 **Like I said at the beginning of this chapter, there's not much going on so this is practically a filler. Also, since I'm not really an English speaker, the amount of vocabulary I have is limited. So if you want me to improve on something, you can give me a review! Yes, this is the part that I beg for feedback (laugh). Very well, for the next chapter, huh? I don't know when the next update will be, so don't wait! It will come when it is finished!**


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